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Copyright by G. V. Buck. From H. S. Whltton 

THE PROTECTION OF THE LAW? 

The Woman Suffrage Parade, Washington, D. C., March 3, 1913. Puzzle : Find the parade. Police claimed 
they could not keep the street clear. For proof to the contrary, see the day after, Page 1877 






















THE WOMAN CITIZEN’S 
LIBRARY 


A Systematic Course of Reading in Preparation 
for the Larger Citizenship 


Editor 

SHAILER MATHEWS, D.D. 

Dean Divinity School, The University of Chicago 
President, Western Economic Society 


TWELVE VOLUMES • FULLY ILLUSTRATED 



THE CIVICS SOCIETY 


CHICAGO 


Copyright 1913 by 
THE CIVICS SOCIETY 



$ /d$ 


VOLUME VIII 


Woman and the Law 

it 


PART I 

THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 

By W. W. WILLOUGHBY, A.B., Ph.D. 

Professor of Political Science Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. 
Author of “The American Constitutional System,’’ “Constitutional 
Law of the United States,” Etc. 


PART II 

THE LEGAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF 

WOMEN 

By JENNIE L. WILSON, LL.B. 

Author of “The Legal and Political Status of Women in the United 
States,” Cedar Rapids, Iowa 


PART III 

LAWS AFFECTING WOMAN’S WORK 
By IRENE OSGOOD ANDREWS 

Assistant Secretary, American Association for Labor Legislation, 

New York 


JFS5\ 

PART iv iV ;T 

THE NO-VOTE-NO-TAX MOVEMENT 

By BELLE SQUIRE 

President, No-Vote-No-Tax League, Chicago 
Author of “The Woman Movement in America” 


PART V 

HOW TO ASSIST LEGISLATION 

By HARRIET G. R. WRIGHT 

President, Colorado Equal Suffrage Association 
Former Member of Colorado State Legislature, Denver, Col, 


/ 


VOLUME VIII 


TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PART I 

PAGE 

The American Constitutional System. 1865 

The American Conception of Constitutional Law.. 1869 
Federal Control and Form of State Government... 1873 
Distribution of Powers between Federal and State 

Governments . 1875 

Express and Implied Powers. 1876 

Interstate Relations. 1880 

Territories . 1884 

Foreign Relations . 1889 

Treaty Making Power. 1890 

Principal Powers of Congress. 1891 

Taxation . 1892 

Interstate and Foreign Commerce. 1893 

Powers of the States. 1897 

Questions for Review. 1900 

PART II 

The Legal Rights and Duties of Women. 1902 

The Legal Age for Marriage. 1902 

Causes for Divorce or Legal Separation. 1905 

Guardianship and Control of Children. 1912 

Personal Property Rights. 1917 

Ownership of Wages. 1920 

Control of Real Estate, Rents, etc. 1923 

Control of Family Income. 1928 

Inheritance Laws . 1931 

Liability for Family Expense.*.. 1933 
























TABLE OF CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Contracts and Partnerships. 1937 

Testimony of Husband or Wife for or against each 

other .. 1939 

Wife Desertion or Non-Support. 1945 

Age of Consent. 1948 

Crimes and Offenses against Women. 1948. 

Protection of Wage Earning Women and Children. 1979 

Educational Laws . 2004 

Offices Women are Eligible for. 2010 

Officers and Questions on which Women may Vote 2020 

Eligibility for Franchise. 2024 

Laws Pertaining to Woman Suffrage. 2027 

Questions for Review....-...,. 2033 

PART III 

Laws Affecting Woman’s Work. 2037 

Hour Legislation . 2039 

Industries Affected by Hour Legislation. 2047 

Rest Periods .. 2049 

Night Work . 2050 

Prohibited Employments . 2052 

Seats, Toilet and Dressing Rooms. 2054 

Regulation of Hours and Wages by Commissions. 2058 

Administrative Regulation of Hours. 2067 

Women Administrators . 2067 

Questions for Review. 2070 


PART IV 


The No-Vote, No-Tax Movement. 2072 

Questions for Review. 2097 

PART V 

How to Assist Legislation. 2098 

Bibliography ... .. 1864 


























VOLUME VIII 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Frontispiece—T he Protection of the Law. 1856 ^ 

Inaugural Parade, Washington, D. G, March 4 , 1913 . 1877 ^ 

Do Girls like these need the Protection of the Law. 1903 

Here the Whole Family Works. 1921 ^ 

Children of the “Red-Light” District. 1935 V* 

Starting Early . 1953 

On the Streets of New York. 1971 ^ 

Children on Night Shift going to work. 1989 ^ 

The Desire to Know. 2007 ^ 

A Sweat Shop. 2025 

In the Rush of the Day’s Work. 2035 

This Employer is Wise. 2045 ^ 

In the Battle for the Daily Bread. 2055 ^ 

Just an Every-day Work Shop. 2065 v 

Ideal surroundings and conditions for women workers. 2075 

The Women who work realize the need of a Voice in the 

Making of our Laws....,. 2085 ^ 

















BIBLIOGRAPHY 


For those who wish to read more extensively the following 
works are especially recommended : 


Author Title of Work 

Joseph Story.Commentaries on the Constitution 

T. M. Cooley.Constitutional Limitations 

T. M. Cooley and Others. 

The Constitutional History of the United States as Seen 

.in the Development of the Law, 1899 

J. P. Hall.Constitutional Law, 1913 

J. R. Tucker.The Constitution of the United States, 1899 

J. I. Hare.American Constitutional Law, 1899 

D. Iv. Watson.Constitutional Law of the United States, 1910 

H. C. Black.United States Constitutional Law 


W. W. Willoughby.... Constitutional Law of the United States, 1910 

W. W. Willoughby . 

...Principles of Constitutional Law of the United States, 1912 


The American State Series 


W. W. Willoughby.The American Constitutional System 

F. J. Goodnow.City Government in the United States 

Jesse Macey.Tarty Government and Machinery 

J. H. Finley.The American Executive and Executive Methods 

P. S. Reinsch.American Legislatures and Legislative Methods 

Simeon E. Baldwin.The American Judiciary 

W. F. Willoughby.Territories and Dependencies 

J. A. Fairlie.Local Government in the United States 

Josephine Goldmark.Fatigue and Efficiency 

John B. Andrews.The History of Women in Trade Unions 


1864 






















PART I 


The American Constitutional System 

By W. W. WILLOUGHBY, A.B., Ph.D. 

^ I a HE constitutional system of the United States is 
a complicated one, and in order to understand it, 
even in outline, it is necessary to describe briefly the 
essential characteristics of the federal or composite type 
of political life of which the United States is the most 
important illustration. 

A state is a group of individuals united in allegiance 
and subjection to a legally supreme political entity or 
person. This legal supremacy or faculty of expressing 
its will in the form of laws is termed sovereignty. As 
thus expressive of a legally supreme will sovereignty is, 
by its very nature, indivisible and inalienable. The 
machinery through which the state expresses and en¬ 
forces its will is termed its government. The primary 
function of constitutional law is to determine the form 
of this governmental machinery and to allot to each 
of its organs and to the officials who administer them, 
their respective powers and functions. Governmental 
organs or officials thus act as the agents of the state. 

1865 


1866 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


They exercise, rather than possess, the sovereign power. 
These agents are of limited political or legal authority, 
and are held to speak and act for the state only when 
they observe the limits of the authority granted to 
them by the law. 

Governments are of infinite possible variety, and may 
be grouped into more or less clearly defined classes, 
no two of them precisely duplicating one another. One 
important classification of governments is that which 
distinguishes them as unitary and federal or composite. 

In all states of any considerable size, it is found 
necessary to introduce, in a measure at least, the prin¬ 
ciple of local government, according to which the ter¬ 
ritory over which the state exercises jurisdiction is 
divided and subdivided into administrative areas, in 
each of which is established a local governing author¬ 
ity. Thus, France is divided into departments, arron- 
dissements, and communes. When few powers are 
granted by the central government to these local organs, 
and especially when these powers are not discretionary 
in character, and when those who exercise them are 
selected by, and directly responsible to, central officials, 
a system of centralized administration is said to exist. 
When, upon the contrary, local officials are given wide 
discretionary powers, the government is described as 
decentralized; and when these local officials are elected 
by the local constituencies, local self-government is 
said to exist. 

A fairly distinct type of decentralized government is 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 1867 

the federal or composite form. Here the decentrali¬ 
zation is carried to the extent of giving to the larger 
local areas into, which the general territory of the state 
is divided, governments of very wide discretionary 
powers, and these powers are secured by written con¬ 
stitutional provisions against withdrawal or diminution. 

A state thus governmentally organized is generally 
termed a federal state. Strictly speaking, however, 
the term federal state has no meaning. What we 
really have is a state with a federally organized gov¬ 
ernment. The term federal state is, however, so con¬ 
venient a one that we shall continue to employ it. 

Historically, most of the federal states today (United 
States, Switzerland, Dominion of Canada, Australian 
Commonwealth) have come into existence by the union 
of states or cantons or provinces, previously independ¬ 
ent of one another, and thus the central government 
and the federal state itself have appeared as the crea¬ 
tions of these uniting bodies. Juristically speaking, 
however, the federal or national state is the sole sov¬ 
ereign body, and is the source whence the governments 
of the several uniting states or commonwealths derive 
their status as constitutional governing bodies. Sov¬ 
ereignty being indivisible, and being conceded to belong 
to the national body, the several states of a federal 
union are necessarily wholly without independent — 
that is, original — powers of their own. Constitution¬ 
ally speaking, they are, indeed, but administrative dis¬ 
tricts of the national state, albeit, districts to the inhab- 


1868 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


itants of which have been granted very wide discre¬ 
tionary powers. 

Absolutely distinct from and, indeed, almost anti¬ 
thetical to, the federal state, is what is known as a 
confederacy. Here we have a number of confederating 
states, each of which is conceded to retain its sover¬ 
eignty and to be united to its fellow-commonwealths 
by a treaty or compact and not by a constitution. In 
this composite type the central government acts as the 
common agent of each of the confederated states and 
is, thus, in reality, but an integral part of the several 
governments of these states. 

Shortly stated, then, the distinction between a na¬ 
tional state federally organized, and a confederacy of 
independent states is as follows: in the former the 
ultimate source of all legal authority — that is to say, 
of sovereignty — is the central body; the member states 
have a legal status or existence only as members of 
the union, and an attempt upon their part, or of their 
citizens, to prevent the enforcement of federal author¬ 
ity, or to secede from the union, is an illegal act. In 
the other, the uniting bond being, whatever it may 
term itself, essentially a compact to which the confed¬ 
erated states are the parties, the states remain wholly 
sovereign, and secession from the union is not an illegal 
or unconstitutional act, whatever it may be when 
judged from the points of view of international ethics 
and political expediency. In the United States the 
controversy as to the location of sovereignty, whether 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 1869 

in the Union, the States, or divided between them, 
waged until finally determined, in fact, by the Civil 
War. 

The American Conception of Constitutional Law 

Every state possesses a body of principles which 
determine its form of governmental machinery and 
allot to its several organs, or to those who administer 
them, their respective powers.* These rules may 
remain unwritten and consist in understandings or 
practices sanctioned by long usage and popular ap¬ 
proval, as is largely the case in England; or they may 
be reduced to definite written form and be given the 
character of formal statutes, as is the case in the United 
States. Furthermore, when thus reduced to formal 
and definite statement, their amendment or repeal may 
be, and, in this country is, made more difficult than 
is the case with ordinary laws. 

It does not necessarily follow from the nature of 
a written constitution that legislative acts in conflict 
with its provisions shall, when questioned by the courts, 
be deemed void, for, in Switzerland, France, Germany, 
and other Continental Countries which possess written 
instruments of government, this is not so, the legisla¬ 
ture being granted, expressly or impliedly, the final 

* The United States Constitution serves two other func¬ 
tions; namely, to exclude certain subjects from legislative 
regulation, and to divide the exercise of political powers be¬ 
tween the Union and its constituent States. 


1870 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


authority to determine what is constitutionally per¬ 
missible. In the United States, however, the doctrine 
has found acceptance and application that the courts 
are the final organs of constitutional construction. 
This does not mean that the courts may, upon their 
own initiative, determine as to the constitutionality of 
a legislative act, but that, when, in cases litigated before 
them, this question is raised and a determination of 
it is required for a decision of the rights of the parties 
litigant, they may exercise their independent judgment 
as to whether or not this conflict between the legisla¬ 
tive act and the Constitution does exist, and if it does, 
to refuse enforcement to the legislative measure. Thus, 
under our system of government, the courts, both fed¬ 
eral and state, may test the enactments of the legisla¬ 
tures of the states by the provisions of their respective 
constitutions. And thus, similarly, the acts of Congress 
may be held void if not warranted by the provisions 
of the federal Constitution. 

The important features of this constitutional prac¬ 
tice, and one that is found only in the United States, 
is that thus the courts, whether state or federal, are 
permitted to hold void and to refuse enforcement to 
acts of the legislative branch of the same government 
of which they constitute the judicial branch. The 
power exercised by the courts of this country to. hold 
void acts of the states which contravene the federal 
Constitution is one which is possessed by all courts 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 1871 

which have to deal with the acts of subordinate polit¬ 
ical bodies as, for example, the acts of a colonial gov¬ 
ernment or the acts of municipal authorities. In every 
such case only a delegated authority is possessed and 
the acts in excess of such authority (ultra vires) are 
without legal force. Thus it is that in the United 
States, while an act of Congress has to meet only the 
requirements of the federal Constitution, acts of the 
state legislatures have to satisfy the provisions both of 
the several state constitutions and of the federal Con¬ 
stitution. And this latter requirement is one that rests 
upon the constitutions of the states as well as upon 
their statutes. 

By the twenty-fifth section of the original Judiciary 
Act, enacted by Congress in 1789 and still in force, it 
is provided that where a federal right, privilege, or 
immunity is set up in a state court and the decision of 
the highest state court to which the question can be 
carried by appeal is adverse to such right, privilege, or 
immunity, an appeal may be taken to the federal Su¬ 
preme Court, which is thus given the final power of 
determining as to the existence of a conflict between 
a state law and the federal Constitution. Where the 
decision of the state court is in favor of the federal 
right, no right of appeal to the federal Supreme Court 
has been granted by Congress, though there would 
seem to be no constitutional objection to doing so and, 
indeed, there are many reasons why it should be done. 


1872 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


Federal Supremacy 

Granting, as all now do, that the United States is a 
federal state and not a confederacy and, therefore, that 
the federal authority is constitutionally supreme over 
the state authorities, it becomes necessary to provide 
orderly, legal means by which this supremacy may be 
maintained as against either deliberate or unintentional 
attacks upon the part of the states. The chief of these 
means is that which has been referred to in the pre¬ 
ceding section; namely, whereby the final decision as 
to the existence and scope of a federal right is placed 
in the hands of a federal tribunal — a decision for the 
enforcement of which there is, if necessary, the entire 
military force of the general government. But, more 
directly than this, is the authority recognized to be 
possessed by the federal government to enforce its laws 
within the states and to protect its officers in the per 
formance of their duties. Thus, by writ of habeas 
corpus, issued by federal courts, a federal officer may 
be taken out of the custody of state authorities. So 
also in many cases suits begun in state courts may be 
summarily removed therefrom into federal tribunals. 
Finally, the general doctrine is established that no fed¬ 
eral organ or agency may be so controlled by state 
authority as in any way to interfere with it in the 
performance of its federal function. 

This doctrine has not been seriously questioned since 
the decision of the United States Supreme Court in 
McCulloch v. Maryland in 1819 , in which it was held 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 1873 

that a state, in the exercise of its powers of taxation, 
might not impose a burden upon a bank which acted 
as a federal agency. Chief Justice Marshall, in the 
opinion which he rendered in this case, declared: 

“The court has bestowed on this subject its most 
deliberate consideration. The result is a conviction 
that the states have no power, by taxation or otherwise, 
to retard, impede, burden, or in any manner control 
the operations of the constitutional laws enacted by 
Congress to carry into execution the powers vested in 
the general government. This is, we think, the un¬ 
avoidable consequence of that supremacy which the 
Constitution has declared.” 

Federal Control of the Form of State Governments 

Over the form of governments to be created and 
maintained by the individual states the federal gov¬ 
ernment has no control beyond the single requirement, 
which it is obligated by the Constitution to impose, 
that they shall be republican in form. This require¬ 
ment, it is to be observed, is one of form rather than 
of substance. That is to say, if a state government 
be in form republican, federal intervention cannot be 
justified upon the ground that, in actual operation, it 
is despotic or unrepublican in character. The term 
republic or republican form of government is not de¬ 
fined in the Constitution itself, but there is little dispute 
that a representative, as distinguished from a directly 
democratic polity, is referred to. 


1S74 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


Upon this ground the claim has at times been made 
that the employment by the states of the directly demo¬ 
cratic institutions of initiative and referendum violates 
the agreement. This contention has never been squarely 
passed upon by the Supreme Court of the United 
States, the question being declared by that tribunal to 
be a purely political one upon which the decision of 
the political departments of the federal government — 
Congress and the President — is to be held conclusive. 
But, in truth, there would seem to be little merit in 
the contention; for so long as, generally speaking, a 
state government is representative in character, the in¬ 
troduction of certain democratic features cannot rea¬ 
sonably be held to destroy its republican form. It 
must, however, be conceded that a state government 
might be progressively democraticized until the point 
might fairly be made that a representative republican 
form of government no longer existed and that a direct 
democracy had been substituted for it. This, however, 
as above said, would in any case be a question for the 
decision of Congress or the President rather than for 
the courts. 

Congress has a discretionary power as to the admis¬ 
sion of territories into the Union. It may, therefore, 
condition such admission upon the presence in the con¬ 
templated constitution of the petitioning territory of 
any provisions it sees fit. However, after admission 
into the Union, the territory takes its place upon a 
plane of constitutional equality with all the other states 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


1875 

and may, therefore, at once, by constitutional amend¬ 
ment, change its governmental organization as it sees 
fit, so long as a republican form of government is pre¬ 
served. 

Distribution of Powers Between the Federal and State 
Governments 

Federal governments may be either legislatively cen¬ 
tralized or decentralized. So also they may be admin¬ 
istratively centralized or decentralized. The German 
Empire illustrates a strongly centralized federal type, 
legislatively considered. That is to say, the federal 
legislature has an authority which extends over prac¬ 
tically the entire field of private law. Administratively 
viewed, however, it is decentralized, in that the general 
government relies in very great measure upon the gov¬ 
ernments of the individual states for the enforcement 
of the laws which it enacts. The United States, in 
these respects, exhibits almost the opposite character¬ 
istics. The legislative authority of Congress extends 
over comparatively few subjects of private law — 
though these few are important ones — but, upon the 
other hand, the federal government relies almost ex¬ 
clusively upon its own specially created organs for the 
administration of its functions. Thus we have in this 
country a complete federal governmental machinery — 
executive and judicial as well as legislative — standing 
alongside and operating independently of the forty- 
eight governments of the states. 

The totality of governmental powers is distributed 


1876 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


between the United States and the states according to 
the principle that the former possesses only those 
powers which are granted to it by the Constitution, all 
the remaining powers not prohibited by that instrument 
to the states, being reserved to them, or to the people 
(X Amendment). The last words, “or to the people,” 
refer to the fact that in the states the people thereof 
remain free to withhold from their respective state 
governments such powers as they may see fit — a free¬ 
dom which all of them have exercised. Thus it is 
that in none of the states does the government possess 
all the power, which, so far as the federal Constitution 
is concerned, it might legally exercise. 

Express and Implied Powers 

The federal government is thus a government of 
limited or, as is sometimes said, enumerated powers. 
These powers are not, however, all expressly given; 
for, in addition to those specifically granted, the United 
States possesses the authority “ to make all laws which 
shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execu¬ 
tion” the expressly granted powers (Art. 1, Sec. 8, 
§18). The ancillary powers thus possessed are termed 
implied powers, and, by the doctrine declared by Chief 
Justice Marshall in McCulloch v. Maryland, in 1819, 
and never since disturbed, include not only those abso¬ 
lutely necessary in order that the express powers may 
be exercised, but all those the exercise of which may, 
in any degree, facilitate the efficient execution by the 








































CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


1879 

federal government of its express powers. “We 
think/’ says Marshall, “the sound construction of the 
Constitution must allow to the national legislature that 
discretion, with respect to the means by which the 
powers which it confers are to be carried into execution, 
which will enable that body to perform the high duties 
assigned to it in the manner most beneficial to the 
people. Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the 
scope of the Constitution, and all means which are ap¬ 
propriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which 
are not prohibited but consistent with the letter and 
spirit of the Constitution, are constitutional.” 

The powers granted to the federal government, un¬ 
less expressly limited, either as to their scope or to the 
manner of their exercise, are construed to be plenary 
in character. Thus, for example, the power to regu¬ 
late interstate commerce is given in general terms and 
without limitation. Accordingly it has been held that 
this regulative authority, though of course limited by 
such general requirements as, for example, that of the 
Fifth Amendment that life, liberty, and property of 
the individual shall not be taken without due process 
of law, may be exercised in ways that indirectly, though 
substantially, affect intrastate commerce the direct 
control of which is reserved to the states. “This is 
so,” the Supreme Court has said in a very recent case, 
“not because Congress possesses any powers to regu¬ 
late intrastate commerce as such, but because its power 
to regulate intrastate commerce is plenary, and conse- 


i88o 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


quently may be exerted to secure the safety of the 
persons and the property of those who are employed in 
such transportation, no matter what may be the source 
of the dangers which threaten it.” 

Concurrent and Exclusive Federal Powers 

Though plenary, not all of the powers granted to 
the federal government are exclusive in the sense that 
under no circumstances may they be exercised by the 
states. Indeed, the general principle is that unless they 
are, by their very nature, of a character suitable only 
for federal exercise, they may be exercised by the states 
so long as they are not in fact exercised by the federal 
government. Thus, for example, it is held that so 
long as there is not upon the federal statute books a 
bankruptcy law, the states may legislate upon the sub¬ 
ject. With reference, however, to such a subject as 
naturalization, the regulation of which is granted by 
the Constitution to the general government, it is estab¬ 
lished that the states have no jurisdiction under any 
conditions, this being a matter not appropriate for state 
control. 


Interstate Relations 

Except as united under the federal government the 
individual states of the Union stand towards one an¬ 
other as independent states, and the relations between 
them are similar to those subsisting between the wholly 
independent states of the world. Thus the laws of 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 1881 

each state have no inherent force outside the borders 
of the state enacting them, and no state officer may 
exercise official authority outside of his state, and the 
citizens of one state would not have as such any rights 
within the limits of any other state of the Union except 
for the fact that, in mitigation of this principle of 
state exclusion, the federal Constitution has made cer¬ 
tain very important modifications. 

In the first place, in the so-called Comity Clause, it 
is provided that “the citizens of each state shall be 
entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens 
in the several states” (Art. IV, Sec. 2, §i). The 
beneficent result of this requirement is “to place the 
citizens of each state upon the same footing of other 
states as far as the advantages resulting from citizen¬ 
ship in those states are concerned. It relieves them 
of the disabilities of alienage in other states; it inhibits 
discriminatory legislation against them by other states; 
it gives them the right of free ingress in other states, 
and egress from them; it insures to them in other 
states the same freedom possessed by the citizens of 
those states in the acquisition and enjoyment of prop¬ 
erty and in the pursuit of happiness; and it secures to 
them in other states the equal protection of their laws. 
It has been justly said that no provision in the Consti¬ 
tution has tended so strongly to constitute the citizens 
of the United States one people as this. Indeed, with¬ 
out some provision of this kind, removing from the 
citizens of each state the disabilities of alienage in the 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


1882 

others and giving them equality of privileges with 
citizens of those states, the Republic would have con¬ 
stituted little more than a league of states; it would 
not have constituted the Union which now exists.” * 

Corporations do not come within the operation of 
the Comity Clause. They are “persons” within the 
meaning of the “ due process of law ” requirement and 
entitled to its protection, but they are not citizens within 
the meaning of the Comity Clause. Hence it follows 
that a corporation chartered by one state, unless en¬ 
gaged in interstate commerce or performing some fed¬ 
eral function, may be refused permission by the other 
states to do business within their limits, and, if per¬ 
mission be granted, such conditions may be attached 
thereto as the states may severally see fit to impose. 

Full Faith and Credit 

Also in modification of the principle of state exclu¬ 
siveness, the federal Constitution provides that “ full 
faith and credit shall be given in each state to the 
public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every 
other state.” The effect of this provision is that where 
an individual has acquired a right under a state law 
or by a decision of a state court he may enforce that 
right in appropriate proceedings in another state. Thus, 
if he has secured a personal judgment against an indi¬ 
vidual— whether resident or non-resident — he may 

* Decision of the United States Supreme Court in Paul v. 
Virginia. 8 Wall. 168. 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


1883 


bring suit upon that judgment, just as he would upon 
a contract or bond, in any other state where he may 
be able to obtain service upon his judgment debtor, or 
where the debtor has property which may be attached 
and held subject to execution in satisfaction of the 
claim. And, when such suit is brought, the merits of 
the original judgment may not be reopened — that is, 
full faith and credit are given to the decision of the 
court of the state where the judgment was obtained. 
The only defense that may be made is that which 
denies the existence of the judgment, or that, if exist¬ 
ing, the court which rendered it had no jurisdiction 
to do so. 

Under the operation of this clause the states of the 
Union are obligated to recognize within their limits 
the validity of marriages entered into or of divorces 
obtained in any other state. Where, however, actual 
service of notice of the institution of divorce proceed¬ 
ings has not been had upon the defendant, very difficult 
questions often arise as to whether the court has ob¬ 
tained jurisdiction and therefore been justified in ren¬ 
dering a decree, the validity of which the other states 
must recognize. 

A third respect in which the relations of the states 
of the Union between themselves is regulated by the 
federal Constitution is that they are required to extra¬ 
dite fugitives from justice. Regarding this require¬ 
ment it has been held that, though mandatory in form, 
there is no means by which it may be enforced, and 


1884 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


in fact there have been occasions upon which extradi¬ 
tion has been refused. The provision of the Consti¬ 
tution is that “ a person charged in any state with 
treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from 
justice and be found in another state, shall, on demand 
of the executive authority of the state from which he 
has fled, be delivered up to be removed to the state 
having jurisdiction” (Art. IV, Sec. 2, Cl. 2). To be 
a fugitive from justice the person whose extradition 
is sought must have been actually, and not merely con¬ 
structively, within the demanding state at the time the 
crime with which he is charged was committed. 

The states of the Union may not enter into any 
treaty, alliance, or confederation with another state or 
with a foreign power. They may, however, with the 
consent of Congress, enter into agreements with one 
another, providing these agreements are not political 
in character. 


Territories 

The Union is composed of states, territories, and in¬ 
sular dependencies. The territories are, as regards their 
constitutional status, divided into two classes — incor¬ 
porated and unincorporated. The distinction between 
these two kinds of territories was not clearly drawn — 
if, indeed, it had existed at all — before the decision of 
the so-called Insular Cases in which the constitutional 
rights of the inhabitants of the islands acquired by the 
United States from Spain at the conclusion of the 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 1885 

Spanish-American War were determined. In these 
and later cases it has been held that the term United 
States, as employed in certain of the clauses of the 
federal Constitution, refers not to all territories that 
may come under the sovereignty of the United States, 
but only to the areas originally possessed by the United 
States, and to all other acquired territories which have 
been incorporated into the United States. The power 
to annex foreign territory belongs to the treaty-making 
power. The power to incorporate a territory into the 
Union, however, belongs to Congress. 

The constitutional significance of this distinction be¬ 
tween incorporation and unincorporation lies in the 
fact that it is held that many of the limitations which 
are laid upon the legislative powers of Congress apply 
only when that body is dealing with the states and the 
incorporated territories, and do not operate when it is 
legislating for the unincorporated districts. Thus, for 
example, it has been declared that the provision that 
all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform 
throughout the United States does not apply to the 
Philippine Islands or to Porto Rico, which have not 
been incorporated into the Union by Congress. So 
also, with reference to the preservation of the right to 
jury trial in civil and criminal cases, a similar doctrine 
is held; and, inferentially, the same may be said to be 
true of all the other limitations upon Congress which 
do not go so far as absolutely to deny a power to 
Congress, as, for example, that no title of nobility 


1886 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


shall be granted by the United States or that slavery 
shall not exist within the United States or any place 
subject to its jurisdiction. 

As regards the form of government to be established 
within the territories, whether incorporated or unin¬ 
corporated, the matter is wholly within the control of 
Congress. As has been said by the Supreme Court, 
Congress, in the exercise of its powers in the organi¬ 
zation and government of the territories, combines the 
powers of both federal and state authorities. Terri¬ 
torial governments “ are not organized under the Con¬ 
stitution nor subject to its complex distribution of the 
powers of government as the,organic law; but are the 
creations exclusively of the legislative department and 
subject to its supervision and control.” 

As regards the form of government established in 
them, territories have been classed as “organized” and 
“unorganized.” To the former have been granted by 
Congress very considerable powers of local self-gov¬ 
ernment. The governors of these territories have 
always been appointed by the President, but locally 
elected legislatures with broad powers have been pro¬ 
vided. At the present time — that is, since the admis¬ 
sion of New Mexico and Arizona into the Union as 
states — there are no territories of this class. Of un¬ 
organized, incorporated territories, Alaska now fur¬ 
nishes the only example. Here no local legislature is 
provided and the executive and judicial officers are 
appointed by the President and Senate. 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


1887 


The various insular possessions of the United States 
are generally spoken of as dependencies. They have 
not been incorporated into the United States. They 
are not, strictly speaking, territories; but to Porto Rico 
and to the Philippines have been granted extensive 
powers of local self-government. 

The strip of land upon which the Panama Canal is 
located, though acquired by the United States under 
the form of a lease, is as substantially a part of the 
United States as are any of the other territories. It is 
under the direct and exclusive authority of Congress, 
which, in a recent act, has placed its government very 
largely under the discretionary control of the President. 

District of Columbia 

The government of the District of Columbia, which 
serves as the seat of the federal government, is placed, 
by a special provision of the Constitution, under the 
exclusive legislative authority of Congress. The gov¬ 
ernment provided by Congress in the exercise of this 
authority has been changed in form several times, but 
has for more than forty years been one under which 
the inhabitants of the District have no political voice; 
Congress itself serves as the legislature, and its execu¬ 
tive and judicial officers are appointed by the President. 

Citizenship 

There is in the United States a double citizenship — 
state and federal. Prior to the Civil War there was a 


1888 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


dispute as to which allegiance' was the primary and 
more fundamental one. By the 14th Amendment, 
adopted in 1868, it is provided that “all persons born 
or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the 
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States 
and of the state wherein they reside.” State as well 
as federal citizenship is thus definitely declared to be 
a matter over which the states have no control. Birth 
or naturalization, which latter is exclusively within 
federal control, create federal citizenship, and mere 
residence within a state endows the federal citizen with 
the citizenship of the state. 

Though thus closely united, the rights which attach 
to the federal citizenship are quite distinct from those 
which follow from state citizenship. The federal 
rights are those which spring directly from the relation 
of the individual to the federal government. In the 
famous Slaughter House Cases the court, without at¬ 
tempting a complete enumeration of these distinctively 
federal rights, enumerates the following as belonging 
to this class: the right of the individual to come to the 
seat of the federal government to assert any claim he 
may have upon that government or to transact any 
business with it; to have free access to the seaports 
of the United States, to the sub-treasuries, land offices, 
and courts of justice in the several states; to demand 
the care and protection of the federal government over 
his life, liberty, and property when on the high seas 
or within the jurisdiction of a foreign government, 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 1889 

the right peaceably to assemble and petition for redress 
of grievances; to have the privilege of the writ of 
habeas corpus; to use the navigable waters of the 
United States, however far they may penetrate the 
territories of the several states; to all rights secured 
by treaties with foreign powers; to the right secured 
by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. 

The subjects of naturalization and expatriation are 
exclusively within the federal control. Some countries 
do not recognize the right of their citizens or subjects 
to expatriate themselves and, therefore, when they do 
obtain another citizenship by naturalization, their native 
citizenship remains undivested. The United States 
recognizes fully the right of its citizens to expatriate 
themselves. 

The admission and expulsion of aliens is a matter 
of exclusive federal concern. When admitted, how¬ 
ever, the rights, civil and political, of the alien depend 
upon the law of the state in which he is, except in so 
far as his rights have been expressly defined by treaty 
agreement between this and his own country. 

Foreign Relations 

Within the sphere of foreign relations the authority 
of the federal government is exclusive and paramount. 
This results not only from the various express grants 
of power to the United States, but from the prohibi¬ 
tions laid upon the states. This federal power is not 
only exclusive but comprehensive. That is to say, in 


1890 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


its dealings with foreign powers the United States 
has that same plentitude of power that is possessed 
by other sovereign states. Foreign and diplomatic 
affairs are carried on through the President or his rep¬ 
resentative, the Secretary of State. The treaty-making 
power is vested in the President and the Senate, the 
concurrence of two-thirds of those voting in that body 
being required for the approval of treaties negotiated 
by the Executive. 

It would appear that the right of “ recognition ” of 
the sovereignty or belligerency of a foreign state 
belongs not to Congress but to the President. 

All treaties require senatorial approval. There are, 
however, many international agreements, some of 
which it is difficult to distinguish in substance from 
treaties, entered into by the President without submis¬ 
sion to the Senate. In some cases this is done under 
the express authority granted by earlier treaties or 
statutes, but in other cases the authority is found in 
the President’s military or other powers. Among these 
latter are modi vivendi, protocols (e. g., the Boxer 
Protocol of 1901), military conventions, and agree¬ 
ments for the settlement of claims against foreign 
powers, etc. 

Constitutional Extent of the Treaty-Making Power 

Treaties are declared by the Constitution to consti¬ 
tute a part of the supreme law of the land. In this 
respect they are upon an equal plane with acts of Con- 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 1891 

gress, and it has been held that a later treaty may 
amend or repeal an earlier law, and vice versa . A 
treaty may not, however, appropriate money, and it is 
doubtful if it may alter a revenue statute of the United 
States. Also, while territories may be annexed by 
treaty and thus brought under the sovereignty of the 
United States, an act of Congress is required for their 
“ incorporation ” into the United States. At times the 
question has become quite acute as to the extent to 
which matters ordinarily subject to state regulation 
may be regulated by treaty, as, for example, whether 
aliens may be given privileges which the states must 
recognize in the schools established and maintained by 
themselves. 

In general it may be said that, the plenary character 
of the federal treaty-making power being conceded, it 
must follow that the state policy and state law must 
give way in all cases where a treaty relates to matters 
which, according to the general practice of the world, 
are recognized as proper subjects for international 
agreement and regulation. In all cases Congress is 
held to have an implied power to enact the legislation 
necessary for enforcing the valid international agree¬ 
ments which are entered into by the United States 
through its treaty-making power. 

Principal Powers of Congress 

In this general sketch of the American constitutional 
system it is not possible to treat, even without detail, 


1892 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


the various powers of Congress. The subjects of bank¬ 
ruptcy, patents and copyrights, postoffices and post¬ 
roads, weights and measures, etc., have, therefore, to 
be passed over without comment. A few words must, 
however, be said regarding the federal taxing power 
and the control of interstate and foreign commerce. 

Taxation 

As regards the possible subjects of taxation, the 
federal authority is all comprehensive, except that it 
is expressly provided by the Constitution that “no tax 
or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any 
state”; and, impliedly, it has been held that it may not 
tax the property or political agencies of the states. As 
regards the mode of taxation it is provided that direct 
taxes, if levied, shall be apportioned among the states 
according to their respective populations as determined 
by the last decennial census, and that all indirect taxes, 
“duties, imposts, and excises,” shall be uniform 
throughout the United States. The uniformity thus 
required is a geographical one — namely, that all per¬ 
sons and property subject to the tax shall be assessed 
according to a single uniform rule. This, however, 
does not prevent a grouping of property or persons into 
different classes, each subject to its own rate of taxa¬ 
tion, if the classification be upon a reasonable basis. 
The definition given by the Supreme Court to direct 
taxes has varied at different times, but as at present 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 1893 

determined they may be said to include all taxes upon 
property, real and personal, and all income from such 
property. The amount of an indirect tax to be assessed 
against individuals or corporations may, however, be 
measured by the incomes received by such individuals 
or corporations from their property. By the XVI 
Amendment, recently adopted, it is, however, provided 
that Congress may, without apportionment, levy a tax 
upon incomes from whatever source derived. 

Interstate and Foreign Commerce 

To the federal government has been granted plenary 
and exclusive authority to regulate interstate and for¬ 
eign commerce. Until 1887 the force of this provision 
was practically limited to preventing states from in 
any way placing direct restraint upon the freedom of 
this commerce. In that year, however, was enacted 
by Congress the Interstate Commerce Act, which estab¬ 
lished various regulations and created the Interstate 
Commerce Commission for their enforcement; and 
since then a considerable number of federal laws within 
this field have been passed, and among them the so- 
called Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890, the Hepburn 
Railway Rate Act of 1906, and various Employers’ 
Liability and Safety Appliances Acts. By the Anti- 
Trust Act all contracts in restraint of interstate or 
foreign commerce and all attempts to monopolize trade 
therein are forbidden and declared criminal. Many 


1894 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


important suits have arisen under this act and have 
been carried before the Supreme Court, the crucial 
point in most of them being not so much one of fact 
but as to whether the acts complained of have related 
directly to commerce between the states or with foreign 
countries. 

Manufacturing, it has been held, constitutes no part 
of commerce. Until, therefore, the manufactured 
articles have begun their journey outside the state of 
origin, interstate or foreign commerce has not begun. 
This commerce includes, however, the right of sale of 
the articles in their original packages in the states to 
which they are carried. In other words, interstate 
commerce does not end until the goods imported have 
reached their destination, been delivered, and either 
sold or taken out of their original packages and thus 
commingled with the other goods of the state. 

Where Congress has not provided any regulation 
of interstate commerce, the presumption is that it 
intends such commerce to be free. Therefore, in no 
event can a state lay any direct restraint upon such 
commerce or discriminate in any way against imported 
articles or interfere with their exportation. The states 
may, however, in the exercise of their police and other 
powers, indirectly, and even substantially, affect inter¬ 
state commerce, as, for example, when they provide 
that freight trains shall not be run on Sunday, that 
cars shall not be heated by stoves, that locomotive en¬ 
gineers be licensed, etc. 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 1895 

Prohibitions on Congress 

As has already been pointed out, Congress has only 
those powers which have been expressly granted to it 
and those ancillary to them. From abundance of cau¬ 
tion, however, certain powers have been expressly 
denied the federal government and in a considerable 
number of respects limitations have been laid upon the 
manner in which the granted powers may be exercised. 
Certain qualifications of the federal taxing power have 
already been considered. It is provided that the priv¬ 
ilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be sus¬ 
pended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, 
the public safety may require it. No bill of attainder 
or ex post facto law may be passed, no title of nobility 
be granted, and no money drawn from the Treasury 
but in consequence of appropriations made by law. In 
the first eight amendments to the Constitution, how¬ 
ever, other individual rights, as, for example, freedom 
of speech and the press, religious liberty, the right to 
bear arms, to immunity from quartering of soldiers 
in private houses in time of peace, and from unrea¬ 
sonable searches and seizures, are protected against 
federal infringement. So, also, careful safeguards 
against arbitrary and unjust deprivation of life, liberty, 
and property under the guise of judicial or other public 
proceedings, are established. 

There is no opportunity, in a sketch of this brief 
character, to speak in any detail of these various pro¬ 
hibitions. Regarding one of them, however, which is 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


1896 

laid upon both the United States and the states, a few 
words need to be said. This is the provision of the 
Fifth Amendment directed to the United States, and 
of section I of the Fourteenth Amendment directed to 
the states, that no person shall be deprived of life, lib¬ 
erty, or property without due process of law. 

The phrase “due process of law” has had a long 
history in both English and American law, and has 
had ascribed to it a developing scope and application. 
It has now come to furnish a guarantee to individuals 
and corporations, not only that their life, liberty, or 
property shall not be taken from them by governmental 
authority, except in pursuance of a procedure which 
furnishes to them adequate opportunity to be heard 
and offer such defense against the taking as they may 
be able to advance, but that their life, liberty, and prop¬ 
erty shall not be taken, by a process no matter how 
impeccable, unless such taking can be justified as an 
exercise of some legitimate governmental power. In 
other words, that private rights are to be protected 
substantially as well as procedurely against govern¬ 
mental invasion. Thus, life or liberty may not be 
taken, the freedom to enter into contracts may not be 
restricted, or property taken except in the employment 
by the states or the United States of their powers to 
prevent crime, to enforce police regulations, to collect 
taxes, or to exercise any other proper governmental 
power, as, for example, to regulate commerce, to regu¬ 
late bankruptcies, to declare and carry on war, etc. Of 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 1897 

the powers of the states under which the invasion of 
private rights is justified, the most general and most 
indefinite is that known as the police power, under 
which the states are permitted to prevent individuals 
from so acting or so using their property as to injure 
other persons or society at large. As declared by Chief 
Justice Shaw of Massachusetts, in the important case 
of Commonwealth v. Alger, “ every owner of property, 
however absolute and unqualified may be his title, holds 
it under the implied liability that his use of it shall not 
be injurious to the general enjoyment of others having 
an equal right to the enjoyment of their property, or 
injurious to the rights of the community.” 

In a recent Supreme Court case it is declared that 
“ it may be said, in a general way, that the police power 
extends to all the great public needs. It may be put 
forth in aid of what is sanctioned by usage, or held by 
the prevailing or strong and preponderant opinion to 
be greatly and immediately necessary to the public 
welfare.” 


Powers of the States 

By the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, 
adopted in 1791, it is provided that “the powers not 
delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor 
prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states 
respectively, or to the people.” The powers of the 
states may thus be said to include the totality of pos¬ 
sible governmental powers, with the exceptions stated. 


1898 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


The powers delegated to the United States having been 
considered, it but remains to enumerate and briefly 
comment upon the prohibitions. No state may issue 
bills of credit or make any but gold and silver a tender 
in payment of debts. No ex post facto law may be 
passed. An ex post facto law is a law which in any 
way operates to the detriment of one accused of a 
crime committed prior to the enactment of the law, 
that is, by rendering criminal an act which was not 
punishable at the time it was committed, or, if then 
punishable, by increasing the penalty for its commis¬ 
sion, or by changing the rules of evidence or otherwise 
altering the mode of prosecution so as to make convic¬ 
tion less difficult. 


Contracts 

No state may, by law, impair the obligation of a 
contract. The contracts thus secured include not only 
those between private individuals, but those between 
the states, and between individuals and the states; and 
these latter have been held to embrace charters granted 
to private corporations. By the Thirteenth Amend¬ 
ment the states are, of course, prevented from estab¬ 
lishing by law any form of slavery or involuntary servi¬ 
tude, except as punishment for crime. 

By the Fourteenth Amendment the states are for¬ 
bidden to make or enforce any law which shall abridge 
the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United 
States. This, however, they were impliedly forbidden 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 1899 

to do before the adoption of the Amendment. They 
are also forbidden to deprive any person of life, liberty, 
or property without due process of law, or to deny to 
any person within their jurisdiction the equal protec¬ 
tion of their laws. Speaking generally, this last re¬ 
quirement is that no persons shall be arbitrarily dis¬ 
criminated against. This does not mean that special 
laws may not be made applicable to particular classes 
of individuals, but that, when classification is resorted 
to, the distinctions must have a reasonable basis. 

By the Fifteenth Amendment the states are forbid¬ 
den to found a denial or abridgment of the right to 
vote upon race, color, or previous condition of servi¬ 
tude. By the Fourteenth Amendment it is provided 
that where the suffrage is withheld from adult males 
upon any other grounds the states so doing shall have 
their representation in the lower house of Congress 
proportionately reduced. 

Implied Prohibitions 

In addition to the express denials of authority to the 
federal government and to the states, there are pro¬ 
hibitions which have been deduced from them and 
from the general nature of the government ^provided 
by the Constitution. Thus, it is held that both the 
United States and the states are reciprocally without 
authority, by taxation or otherwise, to interfere with 
the operation of the governmental organs or agencies 
of the other. 


QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW. PART I 

1. Define sovereignty as a constitutional concept. 
Distinguish betzveen a federal state and a confederacy; 
between a centralized and decentralized government. 

2. What is the American conception of constitutional 
law? To what extent may the Federal Government 
control the form of governments of the states? De¬ 
fine a republican form of government. 

5. Distinguish between the “express” and “implied” 
powers of the Federal Government. Illustrate. Dis¬ 
tinguish betzveen “concurrent ” and “exclusive ” powers 
of the Federal Government. Illustrate. 

4. Explain the necessity and force of the “Comity 
Clause” of the Constitution. From what constitutional 
sources does the Federal Government obtain the power 
to annex foreign territory? 

5. Define a “Territory” of the United States. Dis¬ 
tinguish between incorporated and unincorporated ter¬ 
ritories; between organized and unorganized terri¬ 
tories. What is the extent of the power of the Federal 
Government to provide governments for the terri¬ 
tories? 

6. What was the effect of the Fourteenth Amend¬ 
ment with reference to state and federal citizenship? 
Mention some of the distinctive rights of federal citi- 

1900 


CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 


1901 


zenship. Define a treaty and describe the manner in 
which the treaty-making power is exercised in the 
United States. 

/. Discuss the constitutional extent of the treaty¬ 
making power of the Federal Government; especially 
with reference to the reserved powers of the states. 
What are the limitations imposed by the Constitution 
upon the taxing power of the Federal Government? 

8 . Define interstate commerce. What is the original 
package doctrine ? What express limitations are laid 
upon Congress by the first eight amendments to the 
Constitution? 

p. Define police power and illustrate. Define due 
process of law and illustrate. Define an ex post facto 
law. 

10. Discuss the meaning of the constitutional provi¬ 
sion that full faith and credit shall be given in each state 
to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of 
every other state. 

11. What is the purpose of the writ of habeas cor¬ 
pus? And how may it be used to maintain the su¬ 
premacy of the Federal Government? What provision 
does the Constitution make with reference to the inter¬ 
state extradition of fugitives from justice? 

12. What is the force and purpose of the limita¬ 
tion laid upon the states that they shall not impair the 
obligation of contracts? Hove is the District of Co¬ 
lumbia governed? 


PART II 


The Legal Rights and Duties of Women 

BY JENNIE L. WILSON, LL.B. 

1. What is the legal age for marriage? 

Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Mississippi, Mis¬ 
souri, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wash¬ 
ington require the consent of parent or guardian if the 
man is under twenty-one or the woman under eighteen. 
The age at which the parties themselves may legally 
consent to marriage is not given, so the presumption is 
that the common law prevails in these states and that 
boys of fourteen and girls of twelve who marry with 
consent of parent or guardian cannot afterwards avoid 
the contract because of lack of legal age. Washington 
does provide that the license must not be issued in any 
case where the female is under fifteen. 

Connecticut requires the consent of parent or guard¬ 
ian in writing if either is a minor, and Pennsylvania 
requires such consent if either is under twenty-one, so 
these two states are included with those that still recog¬ 
nize the common law, so far as the parties to the con¬ 
tract are concerned. 

Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia ex- 
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LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1905 

pressly state that the legal age is fourteen for males 
and twelve for females. 

New Hampshire has made the age for males four¬ 
teen and for females thirteen. 

District of Columbia, Iowa, North Carolina, Texas, 
and Utah, males sixteen and females fourteen. 

Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, males seventeen, 
females fourteen. 

Kansas, males seventeen, females fifteen. 

Arizona, South Carolina, males eighteen, females 
fourteen. 

California, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, 
Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Wisconsin, males 
eighteen, females fifteen. 

Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Mich¬ 
igan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, West Vir¬ 
ginia, Wyoming, males eighteen, females sixteen. 

Idaho, New York, males eighteen, females eighteen. 

Maryland, males twenty-one, females sixteen. 

2. What are the causes for divorce or legal separation? 

An absolute divorce will be granted to either party, 
in all states, for adultery. It is the only cause for abso¬ 
lute divorce in the State of New York. Other causes 
which will be sufficient to secure a decree of divorce or 
legal separation by either party, in the different states, 
are as follows: 

ALABAMA. — Impotency, abandonment, felony, 
crime against nature, drunkenness. 


1906 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


ALASKA. — Impotency, felony, desertion, cruelty 
endangering life, drunkenness. 

ARIZONA. —Abandonment, felony, cruelty. 

ARKANSAS. — Impotency, desertion, former hus¬ 
band or wife living at time of marriage, felony, drunk¬ 
enness, cruelty endangering life, personal indignities. 

CALIFORNIA. — Extreme cruelty, wilful neglect, 
intemperance, felony. 

COLORADO. — Impotency, if former husband or 
wife was living, cruelty, desertion, drunkenness, felony. 

CONNECTICUT. — Desertion, total neglect, fraud 
in the marriage contract, seven years’ absence, intem¬ 
perance, cruelty, imprisonment for life, any crime in¬ 
volving a violation of conjugal duty punishable by im¬ 
prisonment in state prison. 

DELAWARE. — Bigamy, imprisonment for crime, 
cruelty, desertion, drunkenness. 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. —Cruelty, reason¬ 
able apprehension of bodily harm, drunkenness, deser¬ 
tion. 

FLORIDA. — Consanguinity or affinity, impotency, 
cruelty, ungovernable temper, intemperance, desertion, 
divorce obtained in another state by the other, former 
husband or wife living. 

GEORGIA. — Desertion, consanguinity or affinity, 
mental incapacity, impotency, fraud, force, menace or 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 1907 

duress in procuring the marriage, felony, cruelty, intox¬ 
ication. 

IDAHO. — Impotency, cruelty, desertion, wilful 
neglect, intemperance, felony, hopeless insanity. 

ILLINOIS. — Impotency, bigamy, cruelty, deser¬ 
tion, felony, drunkenness, attempt by one upon the life 
of the other. 

INDIANA. — Impotency, abandonment, cruelty, 
drunkenness, conviction of crime. 

IOWA. — Desertion, felony, drunkenness, cruelty. 

KANSAS. — Bigamy, abandonment, cruelty, fraud 
in the marriage contract, drunkenness, felony, neglect 
of duty. 

KENTUCKY. — Impotence, abandonment, felony, 
duress, fraud, or force in procuring the marriage, con¬ 
cealment of a loathsome disease, uniting with any re¬ 
ligious society which prohibits marriage, drunkenness. 

LOUISIANA. — Felony, intemperance, cruelty, 
public defamation of one by the other, abandonment, 
attempt against the life of one by the other, when 
either is a fugitive from justice. 

MAINE. — Impotency, extreme cruelty, desertion, 
intoxication from liquors, opium, or drugs, insanity for 
fifteen years and incurable. 

MARYLAND. — Impotency, any cause which ren¬ 
ders the marriage void from the beginning, abandon¬ 
ment, cruelty, vicious treatment, desertion. 

MASSACHUSETTS — Cruelty, impotency, deser¬ 
tion, intoxication by liquors, opiums, or drugs, felony. 


1908 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


MICHIGAN. — Impotency, felony, desertion, 
drunkenness, when either party has obtained a divorce 
in another state. 

MINNESOTA. — Impotency, cruelty, desertion, 
drunkenness, felony. 

MISSISSIPPI. — Bigamy, impotence, cruelty, de¬ 
sertion, drunkenness, felony, habitual and excessive use 
of opium, morphine, or other drugs, insanity or idiocy 
at time of marriage, consanguinity or affinity. 

MISSOURI. — Bigamy, impotency, cruelty, deser¬ 
tion, drunkenness, personal indignities, felony. 

MONTANA. — Cruelty, desertion, wilful neglect, 
former wife or husband living, intemperance, felony. 

NEBRASKA. — Impotency, abandonment, drunk¬ 
enness, imprisonment for life, cruelty, desertion. 

NEVADA. — Impotency, cruelty, desertion, drunk¬ 
enness, felony. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE. — Impotency, cruelty, in¬ 
temperance, felony, absence unheard of for three years, 
abandonment, joining any religious sect prohibiting 
marriage. 

NEW JERSEY. — Desertion, cruelty. 

NEW MEXICO. — Drunkenness, impotency, fel¬ 
ony, cruelty, abandonment. 

NEW YORK. — Cruelty, conduct rendering it un¬ 
safe or improper to live with defendant. 

NORTH CAROLINA. — Impotency, if parties 
have lived separate for ten years consecutively, drunk- 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1909 

enness, abandonment, maliciously turning the other out 
of doors, cruelty, personal indignities. 

NORTH DAKOTA. — Cruelty, desertion, intem¬ 
perance from use of liquors, morphine, opium, chloral, 
cocaine, or other drugs, felony. 

OHIO. — Impotency, former husband or wife liv¬ 
ing, wilful absence for three years, fraud in the mar¬ 
riage contract, cruelty, gross neglect of duty, drunken¬ 
ness, felony, if either has obtained a divorce without 
the state. 

OKLAHOMA. — Bigamy, impotency, cruelty, aban¬ 
donment, drunkenness, gross neglect of duty, felony, 
fraud in the marriage contract. 

OREGON. — Impotency, cruelty, personal indigni¬ 
ties, drunkenness, felony, desertion. 

PENNSYLVANIA. — Impotency, desertion, con¬ 
sanguinity or affinity, force, fraud, or coercion, bigamy, 
felony, personal indignities. 

RHODE ISLAND. — Impotency, cruelty, deser¬ 
tion, living separate for ten years, drunkenness, intem¬ 
perate use of opium, morphine, or chloral, such absence 
as causes presumption of death, gross misbehavior or 
wickedness repugnant to and in violation of the mar¬ 
riage contract, when marriage is void or voidable from 
the beginning. A limited divorce may be given for 
such other cause or causes as may appear to the court 
sufficient to justify the same. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. — No divorce has ever been 
granted. Prohibited by the state constitution. 


1910 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


SOUTH DAKOTA. — Cruelty, desertion, intem¬ 
perance, felony. 

TENNESSEE. — Impotency, former husband or 
wife living, desertion, felony, attempt upon the life 
of either by the other, drunkenness. 

TEXAS. — Abandonment, cruel treatment, felony. 

UTAH. — Impotency, cruelty, desertion, drunken¬ 
ness, felony, permanent insanity. 

VERMONT. — Intolerable severity, felony, deser¬ 
tion. 

VIRGINIA. — Impotency, felony, conviction of in¬ 
famous crime before marriage, when either is charged 
with an offense punishable by death or imprisonment 
and is a fugitive from justice, abandonment, cruelty, 
reasonable apprehension of bodily harm. 

WASHINGTON. — Impotency, cruelty, personal 
indignities, abandonment, drunkenness, felony, when 
consent was obtained by force or fraud, incurable in¬ 
sanity if it has existed ten years, and any other cause 
deemed sufficient by the court. 

WEST VIRGINIA. — Impotency, felony, abandon¬ 
ment, conviction of infamous offense before marriage, 
cruelty, reasonable apprehension of bodily harm, drunk¬ 
enness. 

WISCONSIN. — Impotency, felony, desertion, cru¬ 
elty, drunkenness, when parties have lived separate for 
five years. 

WYOMING. — Impotency, cruelty, desertion, 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1911 

drunkenness, felony, conviction of felony before mar¬ 
riage, intolerable indignities, vagrancy of husband. 

3. For what other causes may a wife obtain a divorce from 
her husband? 

ALABAMA. — Cruelty accompanied by actual per¬ 
sonal violence with danger to life and health; conduct 
giving reasonable apprehension of such violence; when 
husband has become addicted after marriage to the use 
of opium, morphine, cocaine, or other drugs. 

DELAWARE. — Hopeless insanity of husband. 

KENTUCKY. — Such habitual, cruel, and inhuman 
treatment for six months as indicates a settled aversion 
and tends to destroy permanently her peace and happi¬ 
ness ; such beating and injury as indicates an outrageous 
and ungovernable temper and endangers her life. 

MINNESOTA. — Limited divorce for cruel treat¬ 
ment; such conduct on the part of the husband as may 
render it unsafe or improper for her to live with him; 
abandonment of the wife and refusal to live with her. 

MISSOURI. — Vagrancy of the husband. 

WEST VIRGINIA. — When the husband prior to 
the marriage, unknown to the wife, had been a notori¬ 
ously licentious person. 

WYOMING. — Neglect of the husband to provide 
his wife with the common necessaries of life if able to 
do so by ordinary industry; vagrancy of husband. 

Arizona, Indiana, Maine, Nebraska, Nevada, New 
Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, 


1912 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin. — Failure or 
neglect of the husband to provide the necessaries of 
life. 

4. For what other cause may a husband obtain a divorce 
from his wife? 

Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Ken¬ 
tucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Okla¬ 
homa, Tennessee, West Virginia, Wyoming. — Preg¬ 
nancy of wife at time of marriage unknown to the 
husband, and without his agency. If the husband had 
an illegitimate child or children living at time of mar¬ 
riage, that fact is a bar to divorce for this cause in 
Iowa. 

VIRGINIA. — If wife was a prostitute or pregnant 
at time of marriage unknown to the husband. 

5. Is a wife entitled to share in the guardianship and con¬ 
trol of her children so that her wishes may guide in the 
choice of church, school, clothing, medicine and work? 

(See also Legal Status of Mothers in the Guardianship 
of Children, Volume VII, Page 1809.) 

California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Co¬ 
lumbia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mas¬ 
sachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New 
Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Utah, and Washing¬ 
ton have made husband and wife joint or equal guard¬ 
ians of their minor children, with equal powers, rights, 
and duties with regard to them. While both live, the 
wishes of the mother in regard to anything which con- 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1913 


cerns the child are entitled to the same consideration 
as the wishes of the father. Upon death of the father 
the mother becomes sole guardian. 

In 1895 Pennsylvania made the mother equal guard¬ 
ian with the father of their minor children, provided 
she contributes by her labor or otherwise to their sup¬ 
port, and provided, also, that she is qualified as a fit 
and proper person to have control and custody of such 
children. 

Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, South Caro¬ 
lina, Tennessee, and Virginia have never changed the 
common law, which makes the father sole guardian 
during his life, with power to appoint a guardian of 
both person and property of the minor child, by will, 
to take effect after his death. 

In all other states the father is the sole guardian 
while living. The mother becomes guardian after his 
death, in some states absolutely, in others her guardian¬ 
ship is limited by certain qualifications and restrictions. 

ALABAMA. — Father may appoint a guardian by 
will, but mother is entitled to the custody of the person 
of the child until it is fourteen. 

ALASKA. — Father may appoint guardian of prop¬ 
erty of minor child, whether such child is born or un¬ 
born, but cannot deprive the mother of the custody of 
the person of the child. 

ARIZONA. — The father may appoint a guardian 
by will, with the mother’s written consent. The mother, 


1914 LAWS FOR WOMEN 

if a widow, is guardian only so long as she remains 
unmarried. 

ARKANSAS. — Father may appoint guardian by 
will, with written consent of mother. Mother becomes 
guardian of both person and property after death of 
the father. 

IDAFIO. — The father may appoint a guardian by 
will, but only with the mother’s consent. The mother 
is guardian after the father’s death if she is a suitable 
person and so long as she remains unmarried. 

INDIANA. — The mother becomes guardian of the 
person of her minor child after death of the father, and 
may control his education. A guardian of the child’s 
property may be appointed by will of either parent or 
by the court. 

LOUISIANA. — The mother becomes guardian 
upon death of the father. She may appoint a guardian 
by will, but if she marries again she loses this right and 
her husband becomes co-guardian with her. 

MICHIGAN. — The father may appoint a guardian 
of the property of a minor child by will, but the mother 
may present objections to the court, if she disapproves 
of such guardian, before the appointment is confirmed. 
The mother becomes guardian of the person of the 
child if she is a suitable person to have the custody of 
the minor. 

MISSISSIPPI. — The mother is entitled to the cus¬ 
tody of the person of the child, even though a guardian 
of the property may have been appointed. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


I 9 I 5 

MONTANA. — The father has no authority to 
transfer the custody of the minor child without the 
written consent of the mother. The mother is guardian 
if the father is dead or refuses to take the custody of 
the minor or has abandoned his family. 

NEVADA. — After death of the father the mother 
is guardian only so long as she remains unmarried, and 
if she is a suitable person. 

NEW JERSEY. — Mother becomes guardian upon 
death of the father, who has no power to appoint a 
guardian without the written consent of the mother. 

NEW MEXICO. — The mother is guardian of 
minor children after death of the father and has full 
control of person, education, and estate. 

NORTH CAROLINA. — The father may appoint a 
guardian by will, with the mother's consent. “Upon 
death of the father, the mother immediately becomes 
the natural guardian." 

NORTH DAKOTA. — The father may appoint a 
guardian of his child, with the written consent of the 
mother. If the father is dead, or is unable or refuses 
to take the custody, or has abandoned his family, the 
mother is entitled to the custody. If a widow marries 
again, her second husband cannot be appointed guardian 
of the first husband’s children. 

OHIO. — If the father is dead or has abandoned the 
mother, she becomes guardian of the person and estate 
and controls the education of the minor. 

OKLAHOMA. — The mother is entitled to the cus- 


1916 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


tody of the child if the father is dead. He cannot 
transfer the custody or services of a minor child to 
anyone except the mother, without her written consent. 

RHODE ISLAND. — The mother is entitled to the 
custody of the minor child if the father has deserted 
her or fails to provide or is imprisoned. Upon death 
of either parent, the surviving parent, if qualified, is 
entitled to the guardianship. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. — The father may appoint a 
guardian by will. If he has not done this, the mother 
becomes the guardian and may appoint by her will. 

SOUTH DAKOTA. — The father may appoint a 
guardian by will, with the written consent of the 
mother. If the father is dead or is unable or refuses 
to take the custody, or has abandoned his family, the 
mother becomes guardian. 

TEXAS. — If either parent is dead, the survivor 
becomes the guardian of the person of the minor child 
and is entitled to be appointed guardian of the estate. 

VERMONT. — The father may appoint a guardian 
of the estate of his minor child. The mother becomes 
guardian of the person, if deemed suitable. 

VIRGINIA. — The mother becomes guardian only 
if the father has failed to appoint a guardian by will. 

WEST VIRGINIA. — The mother becomes guard¬ 
ian after death of the father if he has not appointed a 
guardian by will. She may appoint a guardian by will 
“if she be a widow.” 

WISCONSIN. — The mother is guardian of both 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1917 


person and estate if the father is dead, while she re¬ 
mains unmarried, and if she is a suitable person, 
competent to transact her own business. 

WYOMING. — If the father becomes incapable, or 
dies’, the mother becomes the guardian and is entitled 
to the custody of the child, whether she remains un¬ 
married or not. 

6. Can a father will away from a mother the custody of 
their unborn child? 

Yes, in Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, South 
Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. 

7. Does a wife after marriage own and control her own 
clothes and other personal property owned by her before 
marriage? 

Yes, unconditionally, in all states except Florida and 
Louisiana. 

In Florida the ownership remains in the wife, but 
the husband has the management and control and is 
entitled to the profits during the marriage. 

The law of Louisiana allows the wife to retain the 
ownership of all such property, but gives her control of 
only that portion which is retained and known as “ par¬ 
aphernal property.” All of the wife’s property which 
comes into possession of her husband by agreement as 
the “ dowry” still belongs to her, but is controlled abso¬ 
lutely by the husband, and he is entitled to all profits 
or income from it during continuance of the marriage. 
This is the wife’s contribution towards the expense of 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1918 

the family — her part of the capital necessary to found 
the mutual partnership. 

Until March, 1913, in Tennessee, the personal prop¬ 
erty belonging to a woman before marriage ceased to 
be hers when she married. It immediately became the 
property of her husband. He controlled it and might 
dispose of it by will. If he died without a will, it was 
part of his estate and might be distributed to his heirs 
like his other personal property. 

On the 20th day of March, 1913, “An Act to remove 
disabilities of coverture from married women” was 
passed by the legislature of Tennessee. This bill will 
become effective from and after January 1, 1914, and 
the old law will be “totally abrogated,” according to 
the wording of the new law. After that date a wife 
will own and control all personal property which be¬ 
longed to her before marriage as absolutely as if she 
were unmarried. 

Upon the same date a new law was enacted by the 
legislature of Texas giving a married woman control 
of personal property which belonged to her at time of 
marriage. 

Before this the law was similar to that of Tennessee, 
differing only in the limitation of the husband’s power 
to dispose of it while he lived. If it was in his posses¬ 
sion at the time of his death, it then belonged again to 
the wife. The Texas law still restricts the wife in the 
disposal of stocks and bonds belonging to her. The 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1919 

husband must join with her in the transfer of any per¬ 
sonal property of this kind. 

8. Does a wife own her clothing and personal ornaments 
purchased after marriage, with money furnished by her hus¬ 
band? 

No, except in a few states where they have been 
secured to her by statute. Where this has not been 
done, the common law is still in force, and where ques¬ 
tions have arisen concerning the ownership of such 
articles it has been held that they belong to the husband 
unless the wife can furnish proof that they were pur¬ 
chased with her separate funds or were a gift to her 
from her husband. 

Since 1896 married women in Alabama have owned 
their clothing and ornaments, no matter how they have 
been acquired. 

The law of Colorado provides that a wife’s separate 
property includes “ gifts from her husband of jewelry, 
silver, tableware, watches, money, and wearing ap¬ 
parel.” 

In Louisiana a wife “has a right to take her clothes 
and linen without any formality” after death of her 
husband 

The law of Massachusetts permits a wife to receive 
from her husband “gifts of wearing apparel and per¬ 
sonal adornment necessary for her personal use, to the 
value of not more than two thousand dollars.” 


1920 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


In most states wearing apparel is included in the 
“ allowance ” which the law has provided for the 
widow from the estate of her deceased husband or in 
the exempt property to which she becomes entitled after 
his death. 

9. Does a wife own her own wages earned outside the 
home? 

Yes, unconditionally in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, 
Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, 
Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, 
Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Mis¬ 
souri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jer¬ 
sey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, 
Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennes¬ 
see, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, 
Wisconsin, Wyoming. 

No, in Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, New 
Mexico, and Washington, unless she is living separate 
from her husband. Otherwise her wages is part of the 
community property. 

Yes, in Florida, if she has published notice of her 
intention to carry on a separate business and furnishes 
proof of her capacity to do so, and is actually engaged 
in such business. 

Yes, in Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina, if 
living separate, or if engaged in separate business with 
written consent of the husband. 

Yes, in Oregon, if registered as a sole trader. 



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LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1923 


Yes, in Nevada, “when her husband has allowed her 
to appropriate them to her own use, in which case they 
are deemed a gift from him to her,” or if she is living 
separate from her husband. 

Yes, in Pennsylvania, if authorized by the court to 
engage in separate business and if she has filed a peti¬ 
tion claiming the benefit of the law which secures to a 
married woman her wages or earnings. 

10. Can a wife by law enforce payment for services per¬ 
formed in the home for husband and children? 

No. There is no law in any state which will permit 
a married woman to enforce payment for such services. 
One of the implied obligations of the marriage contract 
being that she shall perform such labor or services. 

11. What authority has the husband over his wife’s real 
estate and the rentals therefrom? 

No authority except in the following states: 

In Florida he has the control and management and 
is entitled to the rents and profits, but he cannot sell it. 

In Tennessee and Texas he has control and manage¬ 
ment, but laws passed in both states in March, 1913, 
secure to the wife the ownership, control, and income 
from all of her separate real property. 

In Louisiana all real estate belonging to the wife 
which may come into possession of the husband by 
marriage agreement as the “dowry” is controlled by 
him and he is entitled to all rentals, profits, or income 
from such property, but he cannot sell it unless the wife 


1924 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


joins in the conveyance, and even then it can be sold 
only for certain specified purposes. The husband also 
controls his wife’s portion of the community property. 

In Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mex¬ 
ico, and Washington, states having the community 
property system, the husband has no authority over his 
wife’s separate real estate; but, while the law expressly 
states that all property acquired after marriage belongs 
equally to husband and wife, the husband controls his 
wife’s half of such property as well as his own. 

California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas give 
the husband power to sell and transfer his wife’s half 
of the community property without her consent, in 
addition to the power of control. 

In Arizona, Louisiana, and Washington the husband 
cannot dispose of his wife’s share of the community 
real estate unless she consents and joins in the con¬ 
veyance. 

In Rhode Island the husband may legally collect the 
rents, income, or profits from his wife’s real estate, 
unless she gives a written notice to pay only to herself. 

Idaho was one of the community states which per¬ 
mitted the husband to sell or convey any or all property 
acquired during the marriage without his wife’s con¬ 
sent or signature. The legislature of 1913 passed the 
following law: “The husband has the management 
and control of the community property, but he shall 
not sell, convey, or encumber the community real es¬ 
tate, unless the wife join with him in executing the 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1925 


deed or other instrument of conveyance by which the 
real estate is sold, conveyed, or encumbered, and such 
deed or other instrument of conveyance must be 
acknowledged by him and his wife.” 

12. May a wife convey her separate property without her 
husband’s consent? 

In all states except Louisiana a married woman 
controls her separate personal property, and may deal 
with it in every way as freely as if she were unmarried. 
She may mortgage it, sell it, give it away with or with¬ 
out her husband’s consent. 

In regard to real estate it is different. In Arkansas, 
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, 
Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New 
Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South 
Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wiscon¬ 
sin, and Wyoming, a married woman may contract 
with reference to her real estate as if she were unmar¬ 
ried, and may mortgage, sell, and convey it without 
her husband’s consent or signature. 

She may convey her real estate, subject to her hus¬ 
band’s right of curtesy or distributive share, in Min¬ 
nesota,. New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, 
Virginia. 

If she is eighteen years of age or over, she may 
convey it in Arizona. 

She may convey it in the District of Columbia, if 
she is twenty-one or more. 


1926 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


The husband must join in all conveyances of the 
wife’s separate real estate in Alabama, Alaska, Dela¬ 
ware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Lou¬ 
isiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Ne¬ 
braska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, 
Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, and West Virginia. 

13. Has a married woman power to will her separate 
property? 

Yes, in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, 
District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Loui¬ 
siana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ne¬ 
vada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, 
Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, 
Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin. 

In all other states she may will her property subject 
to her husband’s right of courtesy or distributive share. 

If her husband gives his consent in writing, she may 
will all of her separate property in Kansas. Without 
this consent she can will only one-half. 

In Massachusetts she may will all of her property 
with her husband’s written consent. She may will one- 
half of her personal property and all of her real prop¬ 
erty, to take effect after the termination of his life 
interest, without her husband’s consent. 

14. Can a wife’s separate property be levied on for family 
necessaries ordered by her? 

One of the implied obligations of the marriage con¬ 
tract on the part of the husband is that he will support 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1927 


his family according to his circumstances and his abil¬ 
ity to do so. That this obligation is universally rec¬ 
ognized is demonstrated by the severity of the punish¬ 
ment provided by law for non-support, and providing 
also that this is a cause for divorce in most states. 

Unless statutory enactments have placed the obliga¬ 
tion equally upon husband and wife, the law remains 
unchanged, and a wife’s property cannot be levied on 
for family necessaries. Even though the necessaries 
are purchased or ordered by her personally, the law 
holds the husband responsible, for the reason that it is 
his duty to furnish these articles, and the presumption 
is that the wife acts as his agent in making the purchase. 

In Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Con¬ 
necticut, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, 
Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, and Washington, the 
wife’s property can be levied on, because husband and 
wife have both been made responsible, but in Con¬ 
necticut the wife is entitled to indemnity from the 
property of her husband for any of her own which 
may be taken to satisfy such claims. 

If a wife orders necessaries in Arizona, on the credit 
of her husband, they are jointly liable, and any judg¬ 
ment recovered is a lien, first on community property, 
second on the husband’s separate property, and third 
on the wife’s separate property. 

In Massachusetts the wife’s property may be held 
to the amount of one hundred dollars in each case, if 
necessaries were furnished with her knowledge or con- 


1928 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


sent, and if she has property to the value of two thou¬ 
sand dollars or more. 

The Ohio law provides that if a husband is not able 
to support his family his wife must assist him. This 
makes her property liable for necessaries. 

In North Carolina a married woman may make a 
contract for necessaries which will bind her separate 
estate. In the absence of such contract, her property 
is not liable. 

In Mississippi a wife’s property may be used for 
the support of the family if she consents. 

In Nebraska a wife’s property is liable if her hus¬ 
band has not enough to satisfy such claims. 

In Rhode Island a wife’s separate property can be 
held only if it has been voluntarily pledged. 

In Vermont the annual income from her property 
may be used for the support of the family. 

The laws of Idaho and Nevada expressly provide 
that a married woman who is a sole trader, carrying on 
a separate business, is responsible for the maintenance 
of her minor children. 

15. Does the law secure to the wife any portion of the 
family income free from husbandly dictation? 

If the income is derived from the earnings of the 
wife, or from her separate property, the law secures 
it all to her. If it is obtained from the labor or prop¬ 
erty of the husband, the only portion secured to the 
wife by law is that which will be sufficient to provide 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1929 


support for her according to the circumstances of the 
husband and the social position of the family, and the 
husband usually has the power to decide just what 
amount shall be expended for the support which the 
law expects and commands him to furnish. 

16. What share has a wife in the surplus of property, real 
or personal, accumulated by their joint efforts after mar¬ 
riage? 

Except in states having the community property 
system, no part of the surplus accumulations is secured 
to the wife, unless derived from her personal business, 
labor, or property and invested in her name. 

The division of joint accumulations from the hus¬ 
band’s efforts outside the home and the wife’s labor 
within the home, is left entirely to them to be adjusted 
as they may agree. If the husband invests it all in 
his own name and claims it as his property, the law 
will not interfere while he lives. After his death the 
wife may claim a portion of their joint accumulations, 
not as heir of her husband, but as justly belonging 
to her. 

In community states, the law declares that one-half 
of all property accumulated by joint efforts of hus¬ 
band and wife after marriage belongs to the wife, but 
she comes into possession and control only after death 
of the husband. 

17. Is it customary for the husband to invest this surplus, 
and take the property thus acquired in his individual name? 


1930 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


He usually does, but not always. The law does not 
interfere with the freedom of husband or wife in this 
matter. In a few rare instances, where the actual part¬ 
nership relation is recognized by both parties, all real 
property is held by husband and wife as joint owners. 
Occasionally property acquired during the marriage is 
held in the name of the wife. The holder of the title 
to property is presumed by the law to be the owner. 
If a question arises as to the actual ownership, courts 
will place the burden of proof upon the party raising 
the question to show that the real owner is other than 
the one holding the legal title. 

18. Has a husband any control over his wife’s personal 
property? 

Louisiana gives the husband control and manage¬ 
ment of all property which comes to him by marriage 
settlement, as the dowry which he receives with his 
wife. It is still her property, and he has no power 
to sell it or dispose of it in any way. 

In Florida the husband manages and controls his 
wife’s personal property during the continuance of 
the marriage, but he cannot sell it, and it is not liable 
for his debts unless the wife consents in writing. 

Until March, 1913, the common law upon this sub¬ 
ject was in full force in Tennessee, and a woman’s 
ownership of personal property ceased when she be¬ 
came a wife. Without her consent or any action on 
her part, such property was transferred by operation 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


i 93 i 


of law to her husband, giving him control, manage¬ 
ment, and ownership. 

In Texas the law was the same as to control and 
management. 

On March 20, 1913, a bill was passed in both these 
states securing all separate property to the wife and 
giving her as absolute control of it as she would have 
if unmarried. 

19. Are spouses’ interests in each other’s real estate equal? 

Neither husband nor wife has any interest in the 
real estate of the other while both live. 

20. Do they inherit equally from each other? 

Yes; in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, 
Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, 
Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Missis¬ 
sippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Da¬ 
kota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South 
Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wyo¬ 
ming. 

No; in Alabama, Delaware, District of Columbia, 
Florida, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Penn¬ 
sylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, West 
Virginia. 

Yes; in Alaska, New York, and Wisconsin, as to 
personal property. No; as to real property. 

No; in Arkansas. In this state, if no children have 
been born alive, the law favors the wife, giving her 


1932 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


a dower interest in her husband’s real property, while 
the husband takes no estate or part in the wife’s 
property. 

Yes, as to separate property; no, as to community 
property, in California, Nevada, and New Mexico. 

Yes, in Louisiana, as to community property. Neither 
husband nor wife inherits any portion of the separate 
estate of the other, except when left in necessitous 
circumstances. 

Yes, in Michigan, unless widow prefers to claim 
dower, which she may do. The husband has no cor¬ 
responding estate in his wife’s lands. 

21. Do they inherit equally from a deceased child? 

Yes; in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, 
Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, 
Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minne¬ 
sota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New 
Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode 
Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Ver¬ 
mont, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming. 

In all other states the mother inherits nothing if the 
father is living. If he is dead the portion of the de¬ 
ceased child’s property which would have come to him 
if living goes to the mother. 

In Alaska, Michigan, Oregon, South Dakota, Vir¬ 
ginia, and West Virginia, if the father is dead, the 
portion which he would have inherited is divided equally 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1933 

between the mother and brothers and sisters of the 
deceased child. 

In New Jersey, if the father is living he takes such 
property in fee simple. If he is dead, the mother takes 
it for life. 

In South Carolina, the property goes to father, 
brothers, and sisters equally. If father is dead, the 
mother, brothers, and sisters inherit equally. 

22. Is a father liable for some family expense for wife and 
child, if the expense is one of which he disapproves? 

Yes; if it can be shown that the articles for which 
the expense was incurred were really necessary or suit¬ 
able to the circumstances and social position of the 
family. 

23. Is a wife legally responsible for the support of her 
husband? 

No; unless the responsibility has been placed upon 
her by statute. 

This has been done in the states of California, Idaho, 
Illinois, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Da¬ 
kota, Oklahoma, and South Dakota, where the law 
requires a wife to support her husband if he has no 
property and is unable from infirmity to support him¬ 
self. 

Pennsylvania requires a wife to support her husband 
if he is likely to become a public charge. 

24. Has a mother a right to share in the children’s earn¬ 
ings? 


1934 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


She has no such right unless living separate from 
her husband, and then only with respect to such chil¬ 
dren as may be with her or under her control. 

If this question were to be brought before courts of 
states where the mother has been made equal guardian, 
and where she has equal responsibility with the father 
for the support of minor children, it would probably 
be held that in these states she has a right to share in 
the children’s earnings. 

25. Is the wife entitled to a voice in the choice of the 
family home? 

No. In most states the law specifically states that 
the husband may choose any reasonable place or mode 
of living and the wife must conform thereto. If the 
husband’s choice is reasonable and the home is com¬ 
fortable and according to his circumstances and social 
position, if the wife refuses to live therein such refusal 
would be desertion and cause for divorce. 

26. Is the wife ever the “head of the family?” 

Yes; in a few states and under certain conditions. 
In Colorado she is the “head of the family” when she 
provides the chief support for the family. In Ne¬ 
braska if the husband is incapable of supporting his 
family or has deserted them, the wife becomes the 
‘head of the family.” 

It has been held in North Dakota that a wife may 
claim the benefit of homestead and exemption laws 



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LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1937 


when compelled to assume the burden and responsi¬ 
bilities which naturally belong to the head of the family. 
I11 Utah and Washington either husband or wife is 
the head of the family, and either may claim homestead 
exemptions. 

In California recently a judge deposed a man from 
being head of his family because he had cruelly beaten 
his five-year-old boy with a length of garden hose. 
An order was entered that he should no longer hold 
that position legally, but it would henceforth belong 
to the wife and mother. 

27. Has a husband any control over his wife’s liberty? 

He has no control in any state, except that which 
the law delegates to him as “head of the family/’ by 
virtue of which he can compel his wife to make her 
home wherever it may please him to locate it, whether 
agreeable to her or not. 

28. May a married woman make contracts without her 
husband’s consent? 

She may contract with reference to her separate 
estate in all states except Florida, Louisiana, and North 
Carolina. 

In Florida, husband must join in all contracts bind¬ 
ing the separate estate. 

Louisiana gives the wife power to contract with 
reference to paraphernal property only. 

Unless she is carrying on a separate business she 


1938 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


cannot make contracts binding her separate property 
in North Carolina. 

In Tennessee a wife may contract and be contracted 
with, regarding her separate property if her husband 
is insane or has abandoned her, and after January, 
1914, will have power to contract with reference to 
separate property in all cases as freely as if she were 
not married. The law passed March 20, 1913, and 
which takes effect the first of January, 1914, fully 
emancipates married women from all disabilities on 
account of coverture. 

29. May a wife enter into partnership without her hus¬ 
band’s consent? 

Husband’s consent is required in Alabama, Illinois, 
Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas. 

Certain legal formalities are required or permission 
of court, in Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, which 
imply the permission of the husband. 

A married woman cannot enter into partnership with 
her husband in Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, New 
Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia. 

In Nevada she may carry on any separate business 
or trade, but she cannot employ her husband to manage 
such business for her. 

In Wisconsin she may not enter into partnership 
with her husband or any other person, if she has no 
separate property. 

In most other states a married woman is free to 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


l 939 


enter into trade relations or partnership with her hus¬ 
band or any other person as freely as if she were 
unmarried. 

30. Are husband and wife legally competent as witnesses 
to testify for or against each other? 

ALABAMA. — Not competent. In case of bigamy 
the second wife is a competent witness. 

ALASKA. — Competent for or against each other, 
but will not be allowed to testify in criminal actions 
unless by consent of both, except in cases of personal 
violence by one upon the other. 

ARIZONA. — Neither can testify for or against the 
other in criminal cases, without consent of both, except 
in proceedings for a crime committed by one against 
the other. Are competent in civil actions by one against 
the other or in actions for divorce. 

ARKANSAS. — Not competent, except in proceed¬ 
ings by one against the other. Cannot testify as to any 
communication made by one to the other during the 
marriage, whether called as a witness while the relation 
exists or afterwards. Either may testify for the other 
in regard to any business transacted by one for the 
other in the capacity of agent. 

CALIFORNIA. — Incompetent in criminal actions, 
except for crime committed by one against the other. 
Competent for or against each other in all civil actions. 

COLORADO. — Incompetent in criminal cases, ex¬ 
cept in actions for crime committed by one against the 


1940 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


other. The wife may testify against her husband in 
actions for non-support. They may be compelled to 
testify against each other in prosecutions under the 
white slave act. 

CONNECTICUT. — Incompetent, but a wife may 
be compelled to testify against her husband in an action 
against him for necessaries furnished her while living 
apart from him. 

DELAWARE. — Competent in civil cases. 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. —Competent, but 
not compellable, in all civil and criminal cases. 

FLORIDA. — Competent in civil actions when 
either is an interested party to the suit pending. 

GEORGIA. — Neither competent nor compellable in 
criminal proceedings. Wife is competent to testify 
against her husband for any criminal offense against 
herself, also in actions for child abandonment. 

IDAHO. — Competent in civil actions when either 
is an interested party to the suit. 

ILLINOIS. — Incompetent, except where the wife 
would be plaintiff or defendant if unmarried or where 
action is for personal wrong done by one to the other, 
or for neglect of husband to furnish support, or in 
cases concerning the separate property of the wife, or 
concerning transactions where the wife was the agent 
of the husband, and in suits for divorce. Not compe¬ 
tent as to communications between them during the 
marriage, or admissions to each other or to third 
persons. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1941 


INDIANA. — Competent for or against each other 
in all civil cases except as to confidential communica¬ 
tions. When husband or wife is a party and not com¬ 
petent in his or her own behalf, the other must be 
excluded. Husband is competent in suit for seduction 
of wife. Wife is not competent. 

IOWA. — Incompetent against each other, except in 
a criminal prosecution for a crime committed by one 
against the other, or in a civil action one against the 
other, or in an action by one against a third party for 
alienating the affections of the other. Competent in 
all cases to testify for each other. In all prosecutions 
for adultery or bigamy or for desertion or neglect to 
provide, husband or wife are competent witnesses if 
willing to testify. 

KANSAS. — Incompetent as to confidential com¬ 
munications during marriage. Competent, but shall 
not be required to testify, in criminal actions except 
in favor of the person on trial. 

KENTUCKY. — Wife is competent to testify 
against her husband in actions for divorce on the ground 
of cruelty or inhuman treatment, or such cruel beating 
or injury of the wife as indicates an outrageous temper 
or probable danger to her life from remaining with him. 

LOUISIANA. — Husband or wife cannot be a wit¬ 
ness for or against the other, except when joined as 
parties having a separate interest. 

MAINE. — Competent in all civil cases. May tes¬ 
tify in favor of each other in criminal cases. 


1942 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


MARYLAND. — Competent and compellable in all 
civil actions. Competent, but not compellable, in crim¬ 
inal actions, but not as to confidential communications. 

MASSACHUSETTS. — Incompetent as to confi¬ 
dential communications. Competent, but not compella¬ 
ble, in criminal actions. 

MICHIGAN. — Incompetent generally, but husband 
or wife may testify against the other in cases of bigamy 
or desertion, but in prosecutions for adultery neither is 
a competent witness. 

MINNESOTA. — Incompetent to testify for or 
against without consent of the other, except in civil 
actions against one by the other, or criminal actions 
because of crime committed by one against the other, 
or for abandonment and neglect of wife or children by 
husband. 

MISSISSIPPI. — Competent in all civil and crim¬ 
inal cases, and either is a competent witness in his or 
her own behalf in all controversies between them. 

MISSOURI. — Incompetent, unless interested party 
to the suit, or where one has acted as agent for the 
other. Wife is competent in proceedings for child 
abandonment. 

MONTANA. — Incompetent, without consent of 
the other, in both civil and criminal cases, except in 
case of crime by one against the other and civil pro¬ 
ceedings by one against the other. 

NEBRASKA. — Incompetent in criminal actions to 
testify against each other, except in case of crime by 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1943 


one against the other. Competent to testify for each 
other. Wife is a competent witness against her hus¬ 
band in actions for bigamy or adultery. 

NEVADA. — Incompetent in both criminal and civil 
actions, except with consent of the other. Competent 
in all actions by one against the other. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE. — Competent for or against 
each other in all civil or criminal cases, except as tc 
matters which might be a violation of marital confi¬ 
dence. 

NEW JERSEY. — Competent and compellable in 
all civil cases, and also for each other in criminal ac¬ 
tions. Competent to testify against when wife is com¬ 
plainant against her husband, if she is willing and 
offers to give evidence. 

NEW MEXICO. — Competent for or against in 
civil cases, and in favor of each other in criminal 
actions. 

NEW YORK. — Competent but not compellable in 
criminal cases. 

NORTH CAROLINA. — Competent and compel¬ 
lable in civil actions, and may testify in favor in crim¬ 
inal actions. 

NORTH DAKOTA. — Incompetent for or against 
each other except with consent of the interested party. 
Competent in civil or criminal actions by one against 
the other. 

OHIO. — Competent to testify for each other in 


1944 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


criminal actions, and against each other for crimes 
committed by one against the other. 

OKLAHOMA. — Incompetent except concerning 
transactions when one acted as agent of the other, or 
when they are joint parties or have a joint interest. 

OREGON. — Competent but not compellable with¬ 
out consent of interested party. Competent in civil or 
criminal actions by one against the other, and in actions 
for polygamy or adultery, may testify as to the fact of 
marriage. 

PENNSYLVANIA. — Incompetent, but may tes¬ 
tify in proceedings for desertion or maintenance, or in 
criminal proceedings by one against the other for bodily 
injury. 

RHODE ISLAND. — Competent in civil cases. 
Competent but not compellable in criminal actions. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. — Incompetent. 

SOUTH DAKOTA. — Incompetent without con¬ 
sent of the other, except in criminal or civil actions by 
one against the other, including prosecutions for 
bigamy and adultery. 

TENNESSEE. — Competent in civil cases, except 
as to confidential communications. 

TEXAS. — Competent in civil cases, and to testify 
in favor in criminal actions. Competent to testify 
against in criminal actions by one against the other for 
personal violence. 

VERMONT. — Competent in both civil and crim¬ 
inal cases. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1945 


VIRGINIA. — Competent and compellable to testify 
in favor of each other in criminal actions, but not 
against, without consent of the other. Competent in 
all cases brought by creditors to avoid a conveyance, 
gift or sale from one to the other on the ground of 
fraud and want of consideration. May also testify 
in divorce proceedings on grounds of cruelty or 
desertion. 

WEST VIRGINIA. — Competent in criminal ac¬ 
tions on request of the accused. Competent to testify 
in favor in civil cases. 

WASHINGTON. — Competent, and confidential 
communications are not privileged in prosecutions for 
desertion. 

WISCONSIN. — Incompetent, except with consent 
of the other. A wife may be a witness against her 
husband for personal violence to herself, or in actions 
for necessaries furnished her, and for wife or child 
abandonment. 

WYOMING. — Competent to testify for each other 
in all criminal and civil cases, but not against, except 
in actions for crimes committed by one against the 
other, or in action by husband for seduction of wife, 
or by either for alienating the affections of the other. 

31. What is the punishment for wife desertion or non-sup¬ 
port? 

Imprisonment, in Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, 
Nebraska, New Mexico, Wyoming. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1946 

Fine or imprisonment, in Maine, Minnesota, New 
Jersey, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas. 

Fine or imprisonment or both, in Arkansas, Florida, 
Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, 
North Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Vir¬ 
ginia, Wisconsin. 

A husband who deserts his wife is a vagrant in Ala¬ 
bama and may be fined and sentenced to hard labor. 

There is no punishment in Delaware, unless the wife 
is in danger of becoming a public charge. In such 
case, the husband may be imprisoned for not providing 
for his family. 

In District of Columbia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, 
Utah, and Washington, the penalty is fine or imprison¬ 
ment. If fine is imposed and recovered, it may be paid 
in full or in part to the wife for support of herself and 
children. 

The penalty in Indiana is imprisonment in state 
prison, disfranchisement, and rendered incapable of 
holding any office of trust or profit for three years; 
or imprisonment in county jail with compulsory hard 
labor for the county, and earnings while so confined 
and employed to be applied to support of wife and 
children. 

CALIFORNIA. — Fine or imprisonment, or may be 
sentenced to jail and required to work on public high¬ 
way or other public work, and one dollar and fifty cents 
per day be paid to the wife while so confined and 
employed. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1947 


COLORADO. — Imprisonment. If husband leaves 
the state he may be brought back by requisition. 

CONNECTICUT. — Fine and imprisonment. If 
wife is abandoned for another woman the penalty may 
be imprisonment for three years. 

MICHIGAN. — Fine or imprisonment. If sentence 
is imprisonment, one dollar and fifty cents may be 
paid to the wife, and fifty cents additional for each 
child under fifteen, for every week so long as imprison¬ 
ment continues. 

NEW YORK. — Imprisonment in jail or peniten¬ 
tiary until security for support is furnished. 

NORTH DAKOTA. — Fine or imprisonment, or 
both. If sentenced to hard labor, not less than fifty 
cents for each day husband is employed must be paid 
to the wife. 

OREGON. — Imprisonment, and sentence to work 
on highway or other public work of the county. For 
each day of such labor one dollar must be paid the wife 
and twenty-five cents additional for each child under 
sixteen, but in no case must the total amount paid ex¬ 
ceed one dollar and seventy-five cents per day. The 
husband may give bond, and if bond is forfeited, any 
amount recovered may be paid to the wife. 

OHIO. — There seems to be no punishment for de¬ 
sertion unless the wife is pregnant at the time. In 
such case the punishment is fine or imprisonment. 

PENNSYLVANIA AND UTAH. —Fine or im- 


1948 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


prisonment. If fine is imposed it may be applied to 
support of wife and children. 

Alaska, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, 
and Vermont seem to have provided no punishment 
for wife desertion. 

Abandonment is cause for divorce in these states as 
in many others. 

32. What is the age of consent? 

Delaware, Georgia, Mississippi, ten years. 

Alabama, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, 
South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, 
fourteen years. 

Iowa and Texas, fifteen years. 

Arkansas, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illi¬ 
nois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachu¬ 
setts, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, 
Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, 
Vermont, sixteen years. 

Arizona, seventeen years. 

California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Loui¬ 
siana, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New York, 
North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, 
Wyoming, eighteen years. 

Tennessee, twenty-one years. 

33. What is the penalty for crimes and offenses against 
woman? 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1949 


ALABAMA. 

Rape. — Death or imprisonment ten years in peni¬ 
tentiary, or fine not less than fifty nor more than five 
hundred dollars, and imprisonment in county jail six 
months. 

Prostitution. — Taking child under fourteen for 
purpose of prostitution — imprisonment in penitentiary 
not less than two years. 

Bastardy. — Father must support child. Must pay 
judgment, give bond or be committed to jail. Law 
fixes the amount at fifty dollars per year for ten years. 

Seduction. — Civil action only for damages. 

ARIZONA. 

Rape. — Imprisonment for life or for any term of 
years not less than five. 

Pandering. — Fine not less than one thousand dol¬ 
lars and imprisonment not less than one year nor more 
than ten years. Enticing female for immoral purpose: 
Imprisonment in penitentiary not exceeding five years, 
or in county jail not exceeding six months; or by fine 
not exceeding one thousand dollars, or both fine and 
imprisonment. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment not less than one year 
nor more than five years, unless barred by marriage 
of the parties. 

ARKANSAS. 

Rape. — Death. Carnal knowledge of child under 
sixteeen, with or without consent, imprisonment in 


1950 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


penitentiary not less than one nor more than twenty- 
one years. 

Bastardy. — Must pay expenses and certain amount 
each month until child is seven years old. May be 
imprisoned if order is not obeyed. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment not less than one nor 
more than ten years, and fine not exceeding five thou¬ 
sand dollars. 

CALIFORNIA. 

Rape. — Imprisonment not less than five years. 
Enticing for immoral purposes, imprisonment five 
years and fine of one thousand dollars. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment five years or fine of 
five thousand dollars, or both fine and imprisonment. 
Marriage is a bar to prosecution. 

COLORADO. 

Rape. — Imprisonment not less than three years. If 
offender is under twenty and has previously borne a 
good character he may be committed to state reforma¬ 
tory. 

Indecent Liberties. — With child under sixteen: 
Imprisonment not more than ten years. If under 
eighteen, may be committed to state reformatory. 

Bastardy. — Civil action for damages and support 
of child. 

Kidnaping woman for immoral purposes is a felony 
and may be punished by imprisonment $ot less than 
one nor more than six years. To live upon the earn- 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


i95i 

ings of lewd women is also a felony and may be pun¬ 
ished accordingly. 

CONNECTICUT. 

Rape. — Imprisonment not to exceed thirty years. 

Indecent Assault. — Imprisonment not more than 
ten years. 

Bastardy. — Father must support child. 

Enticing Females. — Fine not more than one 
thousand dollars or imprisonment not to exceed fifteen 
years. 

DELAWARE. 

Rape. — Death. Assault with intent to commit, 
fine not less than two hundred nor more than five 
hundred dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding 
twenty years. 

Indecent Liberties. — With children under six¬ 
teen, fine not exceeding five hundred dollars and im¬ 
prisonment not more than three years. 

Prostitution. — Harboring or using child under 
eighteen for immoral purposes, fine not to exceed one 
thousand dollars and imprisonment not more than 
seven years, or both fine and imprisonment. 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 

Rape. — Imprisonment not less than five nor more 
than thirty years. Jury may impose death penalty by 
hanging. 


1952 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


Enticing Females under sixteen, imprisonment not 
less than two nor more than twenty years. 

Seduction of female between sixteen and eighteen, 
imprisonment not exceeding one year and fine not more 
than two hundred dollars. 

FLORIDA. 

Carnal Knowledge with female under eighteen. 
Imprisonment not more than ten years or fine not ex¬ 
ceeding two thousand dollars. With female of any 
age, with or without consent, she being mentally de¬ 
ficient, is felony punishable by imprisonment in peni¬ 
tentiary not to exceed ten years. 

Pandering. — Imprisonment not to exceed five 
years, or fine not over one thousand dollars, or both 
fine and imprisonment. 

Bastardy. — Fifty dollars yearly for ten years, and 
all expenses attending the birth of the child. 

GEORGIA. 

Rape. — Death unless recommended to mercy by 
the jury, in which case court may impose imprison¬ 
ment at hard labor not less than one nor more than 
•ten years. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment and labor in peniten¬ 
tiary not less than two nor more than twenty years. 
Marriage may stop the prosecution, but defendant must 
give bond to support the woman and her child for five 
years. If this is not done, the prosecution will not be 


STARTING EARLY 

The danger of bad surroundings and lack of protection. 

























LAWS FOR WOMEN 1955 

at an end until he shall live with the female in good 
faith for at least five years. 

IDAHO. 

Rape. — Imprisonment not less than five years and 
may be for life. 

Enticing Females. — Imprisonment not exceeding 
five years in state prison, or in county jail not more 
than one year, or by fine not exceeding one thousand 
dollars, or by both fine and imprisonment. 

Pandering. — Imprisonment in state prison not less 
than two nor more than twenty years, or by fine not 
less than one thousand nor more than five thousand 
dollars, or by both fine and imprisonment. 

ILLINOIS. 

Rape. — Imprisonment not less than one year, or 
may be for life. 

Seduction. — Fine or imprisonment in county jail. 
Marriage is a bar to prosecution. 

Pandering. — Imprisonment in county jail or house 
of correction not less than six months nor more than 
one year, and fine not less than three hundred nor 
more than one thousand dollars. For second offense, 
imprisonment in state prison not less than one nor 
more than ten years. 

Bastardy. — Must pay one hundred dollars first 
year and fifty dollars yearly for nine years. 


1956 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


INDIANA. 

Rape. — Imprisonment not less than four nor more 
than twenty-one years. If victim is under twelve, 
imprisonment for life. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment in state prison not less 
than one year nor more than five years, and fine not 
exceeding five hundred dollars, or imprisonment in 
county jail not more than six months and fine not ex¬ 
ceeding one hundred dollars. 

Bastardy. — Father is charged with support of 
child. If unable to pay judgment he may be impris¬ 
oned for twelve months. If able to pay he may be 
confined until judgment is paid. 

Enticing Females under eighteen into immoral 
places. Imprisonment not less than two nor more 
than fourteen years. 

Pandering. — Imprisonment in penitentiary not less 
than two nor more than ten years, and fine not less 
than three hundred nor more than one thousand dol¬ 
lars. For second offense, imprisonment in penitentiary 
not less than five nor more than fourteen years. The 
female is a competent witness even though married 
to defendant. 

IOWA. 

Rape. — Imprisonment for life or any term of years. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment in penitentiary not 
more than five years, or fine not exceeding one thou¬ 
sand dollars and imprisonment in county jail not more 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1957 


than one year. Marriage bars the prosecution. De¬ 
sertion after marriage in such case is a misdemeanor, 
punishable by fine or imprisonment in jail, or by both 
fine and imprisonment. 

Prostitution. — Enticing to house of ill-fame. 
Imprisonment in the penitentiary not more than ten 
nor less than three years. Detaining by force or other 
means any female against her will, for purposes of 
prostitution, is punishable by imprisonment in peniten¬ 
tiary not less than one nor more than ten years. Solic¬ 
iting for purpose of prostitution, imprisonment in peni¬ 
tentiary not more than five years or in county jail not 
more than one year, or fine not exceeding one thousand 
dollars. 

Bastardy. — Father may be charged with the main¬ 
tenance of the child. 


KANSAS. 

Rape. — Confinement at hard labor not less than 
five nor more than twenty-one years. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment at hard labor not ex¬ 
ceeding five years. 

Bastardy. — Father is charged with support of 
child. 

Prostitution, or taking away any female for the 
purpose of marriage or to be defiled. Imprisonment at 
hard labor not less than five nor more than twenty-one 
years. Taking female under eighteen from parent or 
guardian for such purpose, confinement at hard labor 


1958 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


not exceeding five years. Soliciting, enticing, persuad¬ 
ing, under white slave act, is a felony. May be con¬ 
fined in penitentiary not less than one nor more than 
five years. The keeper of a house forfeits the lease, 
though rent is paid. The owner is liable and the house 
may be closed by injunction without bond. 

KENTUCKY. 

Rape. — If child is under twelve, death or imprison¬ 
ment for life. If over twelve, confinement in peniten¬ 
tiary not less than ten nor more than twenty years. 
Carnal knowledge of female under sixteen, or of idiot, 
same punishment. 

Seduction. — If female is under twenty-one, con¬ 
finement in penitentiary not less than one nor more 
than five years. Marriage is a bar to prosecution, but 
it may be continued if husband deserts wife within 
three years. 

Bastardy. — Father is charged with support of 
child. 

Pandering is a felony if female is under sixteen, 
and may be punished by imprisonment in penitentiary 
not less than one nor more than five years. 

Enticing any female to enter house of ill-fame for 
purposes of prostitution, imprisonment not less than 
two nor more than five years. 

LOUISIANA. 

Rape. — Penalty, death. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1959 

Enticing, for immoral purposes, imprisonment at 
hard labor not more than five years. 

Carnal Knowledge of unmarried female between 
the ages of twelve and eighteen is felony. Imprison¬ 
ment with or without hard labor not exceeding five 
years. 

Pandering. — Imprisonment not less than one nor 
more than ten years. The injured female is a com¬ 
petent witness even though married to the defendant. 

MAINE. 

Rape. — On child under fourteen, imprisonment for 
any term of years. Between ages of fourteen and 
sixteen, fine not exceeding five hundred dollars or 
imprisonment not exceeding two years. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment not less than one nor 
more than ten years. 

Enticing Female. — Imprisonment not less than 
one nor more than ten years. 

Bastardy. — Father must support child and may be 
imprisoned if he fails or refuses to obey order of court. 

MARYLAND. 

Rape. — Death or confinement in penitentiary not 
less than eighteen months nor more than twenty-one 
years. 

Carnal Knowledge of female under fourteen or 
mentally deficient is felony. Penalty, death, or impris¬ 
onment for life or for a definite period not less than 


i 960 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


eighteen months nor more than two years. If female 
is between fourteen and sixteen, offense is misde¬ 
meanor punished by imprisonment in house of correc¬ 
tion not exceeding two years, or fine not exceeding five 
hundred dollars, or both fine and imprisonment. 

Abduction for purpose of prostitution of woman 
under eighteen, or knowingly harboring such woman, 
is misdemeanor. Penalty, imprisonment at discretion 
of court, not to exceed eight years. 

Bastardy. — Father must support child, or be im¬ 
prisoned until he gives bond to do so. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Rape. — Imprisonment for life or any term of years. 

Enticing for immoral purposes. Imprisonment in 
state prison for not more than three years or in jail 
not more than one year, or fine of not more than one 
thousand dollars, or both fine and imprisonment. 

Sending girl or woman to house of ill-fame. For 
each offense, fine not less than one hundred nor more 
than five hundred dollars, or imprisonment not less 
than three months nor more than two years. 

Detaining woman in such place. Imprisonment 
in state prison not more than five years, or in house 
of correction not more than three years, or by fine not 
less than one hundred nor more than five hundred 
dollars. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 1961 

MICHIGAN. 

Rape. — Imprisonment for life, or any term of 
years. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment in penitentiary not 
more than five years, or in county jail not more than 
one year, or fine not exceeding one thousand dollars. 

Enticing Female under sixteen for purposes of 
prostitution. Imprisonment in penitentiary not more 
than three years or in jail not exceeding one year, or 
fine not over one thousand dollars. 

Indecent Liberties with child under fourteen. 
Imprisonment in penitentiary not more than ten years, 
or fine not exceeding one thousand dollars. 

Pandering. — Imprisonment not to exceed thirty 
years. For placing wife in house of prostitution, 
twenty years. For detaining woman in such place 
because of debt, not less than two nor more than twenty 
years. Transporting females for purpose of prostitu¬ 
tion, twenty years. 

MINNESOTA. 

Rape. — Imprisonment in penitentiary not less than 
seven nor more than thirty years. 

Carnal Knowledge of children. When child is 
under ten, imprisonment for life. When between ten 
and fourteen, same punishment as for rape. When 
between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, imprison¬ 
ment in county jail not less than three months nor 
more than one year. 


1962 LAWS FOR WOMEN 

Seduction. — Imprisonment in state prison not 
more than five years, or fine not exceeding one thou¬ 
sand dollars, or both. Subsequent marriage is bar to 
prosecution. 

Bastardy. — Father must give bond for mainte¬ 
nance of child, pay all expenses incurred, and such 
sum as the woman may agree to accept, with the ap¬ 
proval of the county board. 

Prostitution. — Abducting, inveigling, enticing, 
detaining unlawfully, for purpose of prostitution, im¬ 
prisonment in state prison not more than five years, or 
fine not more than one thousand dollars. Under the 
recent white slave act, the building, furniture, and fix¬ 
tures may be declared a nuisance. A fine of three 
hundred dollars may be assessed against the owner 
and the building closed for all purposes for a year. 
The furniture and fixtures may be sold to pay costs. 

MISSISSIPPI. 

Rape. — Death, unless the jury fixes the penalty at 
imprisonment for life. Assault with intent to commit 
rape, imprisonment for life, unless the jury fixes a 
shorter term. 

Seduction. — Of female over eighteen, imprison¬ 
ment not to exceed five years. 

Bastardy. — May be assessed damages for benefit 
of the mother or child, and may be ordered to pay 
annually or otherwise, for a term not exceeding eight¬ 
een years. Bond may be required and defendant com- 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1963 

mitted to jail if he fails to furnish it. If child and 
mother die, or if the parents are married, the judgment 
may be cancelled. 

Abduction for immoral purposes, imprisonment not 
less than five nor more than fifteen years. 

Enticing Girl under fourteen for purposes of 
prostitution, imprisonment in county jail one year, or 
fine of one thousand dollars, or imprisonment in peni¬ 
tentiary not more than ten years. 

MISSOURI. 

Rape. — Death, or imprisonment not less than five 
years, if female is under fourteen. 

Seduction. — Is felony. Imprisonment not less 
than two nor more than five years, or fine not exceed¬ 
ing one thousand dollars, and imprisonment in jail not 
exceeding one year. Marriage is bar. 

Carnal Knowledge. — If woman is between four¬ 
teen and eighteen, imprisonment in penitentiary two 
years, or by fine not less than one hundred nor more 
than five hundred dollars, or imprisonment in jail, or 
both fine and imprisonment. 

Taking away woman with intention to defile or to 
marry, five years in penitentiary. 

Enticing to house of ill-fame, five years in peni¬ 
tentiary, or in county jail not exceeding six months, 
or fine not less than fifty dollars, or both fine and 
imprisonment. 


1964 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


MONTANA. 

Rape. — Imprisonment in state prison not less than 
five years. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment in state prison not 
more than five years, or by fine not exceeding five 
thousand dollars. Marriage is a bar to prosecution. 

Seduction for purpose of marriage or prostitution, 
any female under eighteen, into any house of ill-fame 
or assignation, or elsewhere, whether principal or assist¬ 
ant in the offense, imprisonment in state prison not 
exceeding five years or in county jail not exceeding 
one year, or fine of one thousand dollars, or both fine 
and imprisonment. 

Abducting for purpose of prostitution, female 
under eighteen, state prison not exceeding five years 
and fine not more than one thousand dollars. 

Bastardy. — May be charged with maintenance of 
child in such sum and in such manner as the court shall 
direct, with costs* of suit. The amount decreed may 
be paid in one sum immediately, or afterwards from 
time to time. May be committed to jail if order is not 
obeyed. 

NEBRASKA. 

Rape. — Not less than three nor more than twenty 
years in the penitentiary. 

Bastardy. — Father must support child. 

Pandering. — First offense, imprisonment in county 
jail not less than six months nor more than one year, 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1965 

or fine not to exceed one thousand dollars, or both fine 
and imprisonment. Second offense, not less than three 
nor more than ten years in penitentiary. Marriage is 
a defense and woman is a competent witness. 

NEVADA. 

Rape. — Imprisonment not less than five years and 
may be for life. If great bodily injury accompanies 
the act, the punishment may be not less than twenty 
years’ imprisonment, or death, as jury may determine. 

Seduction. — Woman may recover damages. 

Bastardy. — Father must contribute to support of 
child. If he fails to obey order of court he is guilty 
of contempt and may be punished as in other cases 
of contempt. 

Prostitution. — Placing woman in house of pros¬ 
titution or compelling her to remain there or living on 
the proceeds of prostitution, imprisonment in peniten¬ 
tiary not more than five years, or fine not exceeding 
two thousand dollars. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

Rape. — Imprisonment not exceeding thirty years. 

Bastardy. — Father must contribute to support of 
child, and may be committed to jail if he fails to obey 
order of court. 

NEW JERSEY. 

Rape. — Imprisonment at hard labor not exceeding 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1966 

fifteen years, or fine not more than two thousand 
dollars, or both. 

Seduction. — Injured woman may recover dam¬ 
ages. If rule of court is not obeyed, defendant may 
be committed to jail. 

Bastardy. — Father must support child, and may 
be imprisoned in jail if order of court is not obeyed. 

Prostitution. — Enforcing or compelling to pros¬ 
titution, detaining female in disorderly house, trans¬ 
porting for such purpose, are all high misdemeanors. 
Penalty, fine of two thousand dollars, or imprison¬ 
ment with or without hard labor not more than seven 
years, or both. 

NEW MEXICO. 

Rape. — Of child under ten, imprisonment for life. 
In other cases, imprisonment not less than five nor 
more than twenty years. 

Seduction of minors.—Fine not exceeding one 
hundred nor less than eighty dollars, or imprisonment 
not more than one year nor less than eight months. 

Compelling to marry or be defiled. Imprisonment 
not less than three nor more than ten years, or fine 
not less than one thousand dollars, or by both fine and 
imprisonment. 

Enticing for purposes of prostitution. Imprison¬ 
ment not more than five years or by fine not less than 
one thousand dollars, or both fine and imprisonment. 
Under white slave act, imprisonment not less than two 
nor more than ten years. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1967 


NEW YORK. 

Rape. — Imprisonment not more than twenty years. 
If female is under eighteen, with or without consent, 
imprisonment not exceeding ten years. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment not more than five 
years, or fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or 
both. Marriage is a defense. 

Prostitution. — Compulsory prostitution of wom¬ 
en. Imprisonment not less than two nor more than 
twenty years, and fine not exceeding five thousand 
dollars. Living on proceeds of prostitution is misde¬ 
meanor in male person. Violation of white slave law, 
imprisonment not more than ten nor less than two 
years. 

NORTH CAROLINA. 

Rape on girls of previously chaste character between 
the ages of ten and fourteen is a felony. Penalty, fine 
or imprisonment in discretion of the court. 

Seduction is felony. Fine or imprisonment in .dis¬ 
cretion of court. Maximum punishment, imprison¬ 
ment in state’s prison not to exceed five years. 

Bastardy. — Fine not to exceed ten dollars and fifty 
dollars to the woman, and bond to support the child. 
May be committed to prison in default of payment. 

NORTH DAKOTA. 

Rape. — Imprisonment five or ten years, according 
to the degree of the offense. 


1968 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


Seduction. — Imprisonment in penitentiary not less 
than one nor more than five years, or in county jail 
not exceeding one year, or by fine not exceeding one 
thousand dollars, or both fine and imprisonment. Mar¬ 
riage is bar to prosecution. 

Bastardy. — Father must support child. May be 
imprisoned for failure to do so. 

Prostitution. — Inveigling, enticing, or abducting 
for purpose of prostitution. Imprisonment in peniten¬ 
tiary not less than one nor more than five years, or in 
jail not exceeding one year, or fine not exceeding one 
thousand dollars, or both fine and imprisonment. 

OHIO. 

Rape of child under twelve, or of any other female, 
forcibly and against her will, imprisonment not less 
than one nor more than twenty years. Of female 
under sixteen, with her consent, imprisonment in peni¬ 
tentiary not less than one nor more than twenty years, 
or six months in jail or workhouse. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment in county jail not more 
than six months, or in penitentiary not more than three 
years. 

Bastardy. — Father may be charged with mainte¬ 
nance and committed to jail if he refuses. If unable to 
pay, may be liberated in three months under insolvent 
debtors’ law. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1969 


OKLAHOMA. 

Rape. — Imprisonment in penitentiary either five or 
ten years, according to degree of the crime. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment in penitentiary not ex¬ 
ceeding five years, or in jail not more than one year, 
or fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or both fine 
and imprisonment. 

Enticing, abducting, or inveigling for purpose of 
prostitution. Same punishment as for seduction. 

Bastardy. — Father may be charged with mainte¬ 
nance. 

Pandering. — First offense, imprisonment in jail 
not less than six months nor more than one year. 
Second offense, imprisonment in penitentiary not less 
than one nor more than three years. Marriage is no 
defense. 

OREGON. 

Rape. — Imprisonment in penitentiary not less than 
three nor more than twenty years. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment in penitentiary not less 
than one nor more than five years, or in jail not less 
than three months nor more than one year, or fine not 
less than five hundred nor more than one thousand 
dollars. 

Prostitution. — Persuading, inducing, enticing, or 
coercing any woman to engage in prostitution, is a 
felony. Penalty, fine not less than one hundred nor 
more than five thousand dollars, or imprisonment in 


1970 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


penitentiary not less than one nor more than five years, 
or both fine and imprisonment. Transporting within 
the state for such purpose, fine one hundred to ten 
thousand dollars, or .imprisonment five years, or both. 
If the girl is under eighteen, fine one hundred to ten 
thousand dollars, or imprisonment from one to ten 
years, or both. The building, fixtures, and furniture 
may be declared a nuisance and the building closed for 
all purposes for a year. The owner may be fined, and 
furniture and fixtures sold to pay costs. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

Rape. — Is felony. Penalty, fine not exceeding one 
thousand dollars and imprisonment, with or without 
hard labor, not exceeding fifteen years. 

Seduction. — Fine not exceeding five thousand 
dollars and imprisonment either at labor, by separate 
and solitary confinement, or without labor, not exceed¬ 
ing three years, both or either, at discretion of court. 

Bastardy. — Fine not exceeding one thousand dol¬ 
lars, paid to overseers of the poor where offense was 
committed, expenses incurred at birth of child, and 
maintenance of child. 

Pandering. — Imprisonment by separate or solitary 
confinement at hard labor, not exceeding ten years. 

RHODE ISLAND. 

Rape. — Imprisonment not less than ten years or for 
life. 


ON THE STREETS OF NEW YORK 
































LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1973 


Carnal Knowledge of girl under sixteen, impris¬ 
onment for fifteen years. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment not exceeding five 
years. 

Bastardy. — Father must defray all expenses of 
birth of child and pay costs of suit, and must support 
child. 

Pandering. — For first offense, imprisonment not 
less than six months, nor more than one year, and fine 
from three hundred to one thousand dollars. Subse¬ 
quent offense, imprisonment not less than one nor 
more than ten years. If child is under fourteen, im¬ 
prisonment not exceeding five years or fine not exceed¬ 
ing five thousand dollars. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Rape. — Death by hanging. If recommended to 
mercy by the jury, court may reduce punishment to 
imprisonment for life at hard labor. Assault with 
intent to ravish, imprisonment for thirty years. If 
female is between ten and fourteen and jury recom¬ 
mends to mercy, penalty is imprisonment not exceeding 
fourteen years, at discretion of court. 

Carnal Knowledge of child under fourteen is 
punished same as rape. 

Bastardy. — Father must pay twenty-five dollars 
yearly toward support of child until it is twelve years 
old. 

Prostitution. — Enticing, taking, or conveying 


1974 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


any female child under sixteen for purpose of marriage 
or prostitution may be punished by imprisonment for 
five years or by fine, at discretion of the court, such 
fine to be divided between the state and the parent or 
guardian or other parties aggrieved. 

SOUTH DAKOTA. 

Rape. — Imprisonment from ten to twenty years, 
according to degree of the offense. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment not exceeding five 
years or fine of one thousand dollars, or both fine and 
imprisonment. Marriage is a defense. 

Bastardy. — Father must pay two hundred and 
fifty dollars the first year and one hundred and fifty 
dollars yearly for ten years. May be committed to 
jail for failure to pay or give bond. If unable to pay, 
may be discharged in one year. 

Prostitution. — If female is under twenty-five 
and is induced to lead a life of prostitution by any 
means, the party responsible may be imprisoned not 
exceeding twenty years or by fine not exceeding one 
thousand dollars, or by both fine and imprisonment. 
Under the white slave act, the building, furniture, and 
fixtures may be declared a nuisance. A tax may be 
assessed against the owner and person maintaining, 
which shall be a perpetual lien on all real and personal 
property used. The house may be closed against all 
use for one year and furniture and fixtures sold to 
pay costs. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1975 


TENNESSEE. 

Rape and carnal knowledge of child under eighteen 
is felony. Penalty is death by hanging, but jury may 
commute punishment to imprisonment in penitentiary 
for life or for any period not less than ten years. 

Seduction. — Woman may recover such damages 
as may be found in her favor. 

Bastardy. — Father must pay costs of suit and 
towards support of child, first year, forty dollars; sec¬ 
ond, thirty dollars; fourth year, twenty dollars. This 
provision is only when child is likely to become a public 
charge. 

Prostitution. — Taking females from parents for 
immoral purpose, imprisonment not less than ten nor 
more than twenty-one years. 

TEXAS. 

Rape. — Death or imprisonment in penitentiary for 
life or any term of years not less than five. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment not less than two nor 
more than ten years. 

Abducting female under fourteen for purpose of 
prostitution or marriage, fine not exceeding two thou¬ 
sand dollars. If forced into marriage, not less than 
two nor more than five years’ imprisonment. If pros¬ 
tituted, imprisonment not less than three nor more than 
twenty years. 

Prostitution. — Soliciting or procuring for houses 


1976 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


of prostitution, fine not less than fifty nor more than 
two hundred dollars and imprisonment in jail not less 
than one month nor more than six months. 

UTAH. 

Rape. — Imprisonment in penitentiary not less than 
five years. 

Seduction. — Such damages as may be assessed. 

Bastardy. — Father must pay for support of child 
two hundred dollars the first year and one hundred and 
fifty dollars yearly for seventeen years, and costs of 
prosecution. May be committed to jail until bond is 
given. 

Pandering. — Imprisonment in state prison not to 
exceed twenty years. Leaving or forcing wife in house 
of prostitution, ten years. Detaining female because 
of debt, not more than ten years. Obtaining transpor¬ 
tation into or across state, ten years. Receiving money 
from proceeds of prostitution, imprisonment not less 
than two nor more than ten years. 

VERMONT. 

Rape. — Imprisonment in state prison not more 
than twenty years, or fine not more than two thousand 
dollars, or both. 

Bastardy. — Father must support child, with as¬ 
sistance of the mother. Must give bond and may be 
committed to jail for failure to do so. 

White Slave Traffic. — Is felony. Fine not less 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1977 


than two hundred nor more than two thousand dollars, 
or imprisonment not less than one year nor more than 
ten years, or both fine and imprisonment. 

VIRGINIA. 

Rape. — Death, or imprisonment not less than five 
nor more than twenty years. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment in penitentiary not less 
than two nor more than ten years. Marriage is bar to 
prosecution. 

Abduction for purpose of prostitution, imprison¬ 
ment in penitentiary not less than three nor more than 
ten years. Anyone assisting, not less than two nor 
more than five years. 

WASHINGTON. 

Rape. — If injured party is child under ten, impris¬ 
onment for life. Between ten and fifteen, imprison¬ 
ment not less than five years. Between fifteen and 
eighteen, not more than ten years in penitentiary or not 
more than one year in county jail. All other cases, 
imprisonment not less than five years. 

Indecent Liberties. — Is gross misdemeanor. Im¬ 
prisonment in jail not more than one year, or by fine 
not more than one thousand dollars, or both fine and 
imprisonment. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment in penitentiary not 
more than five years, or in jail not more than one year, 
or fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or both fine 


1978 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


and imprisonment. Marriage is bar to prosecution, but 
if husband fails to provide for wife for three years, 
proceedings may be revived. 

Prostitution. — Placing female in house of pros¬ 
titution, imprisonment in state prison not more than 
five years, or fine not exceeding two thousand dollars. 

WEST VIRGINIA. 

Rape. — Death, or imprisonment not less than seven 
nor more than twenty years. 

Bastardy. — Father must give bond to support 
child. May be imprisoned if he fails to do so. 

Pandering. — Keeping or holding females in house 
of prostitution, for first offense, imprisonment in jail 
not less than six months nor more than one year, and 
fine not less than one hundred nor more than five hun¬ 
dred dollars. For subsequent convictions, imprison¬ 
ment in penitentiary not less than one nor more than 
three years. 

WISCONSIN. 

Rape. — If female is under fourteen, imprisonment 
not less than five nor more than thirty-five years. If 
over fourteen, not less than ten nor more than thirty 
years. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment in state prison not 
more than five nor less than one year, or in jail not 
less than one year. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1979 


Indecent Liberties. — Imprisonment in jail not 
less than thirty days nor more than six months. 

Bastardy. — Father must pay all expenses incurred 
and give bond for support of child. May be impris¬ 
oned if bond is not provided. 

Prostitution. — Soliciting, keeping, detaining fe¬ 
male under sixteen, imprisonment not less than one nor 
more than ten years, or fine not exceeding one thou¬ 
sand dollars. If woman is over sixteen, imprisonment 
not less than five nor more than fifteen years. 

WYOMING. 

Rape. — Imprisonment in penitentiary not less than 
one year and may be for life. 

Seduction. — Imprisonment in penitentiary not 
more than five years or in county jail not more than 
twelve months. 

Bastardy. — Father must give bond for support of 
child. May be committed to jail upon failure to do so. 

Enticing females, or procuring for house of pros¬ 
titution, imprisonment in penitentiary not more than 
five years, or in jail not more than six months or 
twelve months, according to the offense. 

34. What laws are there in your state for the protection 
of wage earning women and children? 

ALABAMA. — Women are not permitted to work 
in mines. Seats must be provided for all female em¬ 
ployes and they must be permitted to use them when 


1980 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


not actively engaged. Children under twelve cannot 
be employed in any mill, factory, or mercantile estab¬ 
lishment. 

ARIZONA. — Women and girls are not permitted 
to work in mines, quarries, or breakers, nor in any 
occupation where they must constantly stand. They 
may not work in saloons nor give any exhibitions in 
saloons or similar places. Children under fourteen 
must not be employed unless proof is furnished that 
the child is excused from school attendance for some 
good and sufficient reason. 

ARKANSAS. — Women and girls may not be em¬ 
ployed in mines or in connection with mines. Children 
under fourteen may not be employed in any gainful 
occupation, except in preservation or canning of fruits 
or vegetables, during school vacation. 

CALIFORNIA. — Women are free to engage in 
any business, profession, or employment. Seats must 
be provided for female employes. Minors under 
eighteen may not work between 10 p. m. and 5 a. m. 
Eight hours is a day’s work and one whole day of rest 
each week must be given all employes. 

COLORADO. — No woman may be employed in 
any mine, and no female help can be employed in any 
place of bad repute. Girls under sixteen are not 
allowed to be employed where they must stand con¬ 
stantly. All employers of women must provide seats 
and suitable dressing rooms. Eight hours is the legal 
day’s work and forty-eight hours per week. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1981 

CONNECTICUT. — Women or girls may not be 
employed in saloons, nor sent by employers to any place 
of bad repute. Employers must furnish seats for rest. 
No woman shall be forced to labor more than ten 
hours per day or fifty-eight hours per week, and one 
full day of rest must be allowed in each week. 

DELAWARE. — All employers of women must 
provide seats and separate dressing and wash rooms for 
women employes. These rooms must be kept heated 
and in a sanitary condition. Using profane or indecent 
language towards a female employe is a misdemeanor. 
The Governor must appoint a woman factory inspector 
whose duty shall be to see that all laws relating to 
women and children are enforced. 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. —Seats must be 
provided for all women employes. No girl under six¬ 
teen may be a bootblack or sell papers or any other 
wares publicly on the street, nor can they be employed 
more than eight hours per day, nor between the hours 
of 7 p. m. and 6 a. m. Employment agencies must not 
send applicants to places of bad repute. 

FLORIDA. — Employers of women must provide 
seats for them and permit them to rest when not ac¬ 
tually employed. Children under twelve years of age 
may not be employed in any factory, nor in any place 
where intoxicating liquors are sold. Nine hours is a 
legal day’s work for all children under twelve. Women 
may not be employed more than ten hours per day. 
Sunday labor is prohibited. 


1982 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


GEORGIA. — Seats must be provided for female 
employes. Minors must not be employed where intox¬ 
icating liquors are sold, nor be let out for employment 
in acrobatic or other exhibitions. No child under four¬ 
teen shall be employed unless he or she can write his 
,or her name and simple sentences and shall have at¬ 
tended school twelve weeks of the preceding year, six 
weeks of which shall have been consecutive. Children 
under fourteen may not be employed between the hours 
of 7 p. m. and 6 a. m. Children under sixteen cannot 
be employed as messengers between 9 p. m. and 6 a. m. 

IDAHO. — Nine hours per day is the legal limit 
for female labor, except for those employed in harvest¬ 
ing, packing, curing, or canning any variety of fruit or 
vegetables. Seats must be provided for female em¬ 
ployes. Children under twelve may not be employed 
between twelve and fourteen while school is in session. 
Between fourteen and sixteen without the required 
school instruction. No minor may be employed in any 
bottling, brewery, where intoxicating liquors are sold 
or prepared for sale, gambling house, saloon, or any 
immoral place. No child under fourteen may work in 
any mine. Children under sixteen may not work more 
than nine hours per day. Sunday labor is prohibited. 

ILLINOIS. — Women or girls may not work in 
mines. Ten hours is a legal day’s work for all women 
employed in factories, stores, laundries, hotels, res¬ 
taurants, telegraph or telephone offices, places of amuse¬ 
ment, transportation or utility business, public institu- 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1983 

tions. The hours of labor may be so arranged as to 
permit the employment of women any time during the 
twenty-four hours of any day. No female under six¬ 
teen can be employed where she must remain constantly 
standing. Seats must be provided for all female em¬ 
ployes. Children under fourteen may not be employed 
in any occupation. The employment of children under 
sixteen in any concert hall, theater, or any place where 
intoxicating liquors are sold, or as messengers to houses 
of ill-fame, or in any other employment dangerous to 
life or morals, is strictly prohibited. 

INDIANA. — Women and girls may not work in 
mines. Females under eighteen must not be employed 
in cleaning machinery while in motion, nor where con¬ 
stant standing is necessary. Seats and suitable dress¬ 
ing rooms must be provided for all female employes. 
One hour must be allowed for the noonday meal. The 
employment of children under fourteen is prohibited, 
except from June 1 to October 1, when children who 
are twelve or over may be employed in fruit canning 
and preserving establishments. No woman or girl shall 
be employed in any factory between 10 p. m. and 
6 a. m. No female under sixteen may work more than 
eight hours per day, except with permission of parent 
or guardian. In no case must the hours of work exceed 
fifty-four hours per week. Sunday labor is prohibited. 

IOWA. — No woman or girl may be employed 
where intoxicating liquors are sold. No female under 
sixteen shall be employed where the duties of such em- 


1984 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


ployment shall keep her constantly standing. Seats 
must be provided for all female employes. Children 
under sixteen must not be employed in operating or 
assisting to operate dangerous machinery, nor in any 
occupation dangerous to life, health, or morals. They 
must not be required to work more than ten hours in 
any one day, exclusive of the noon intermission, which 
must not be less than thirty minutes between the hours 
of 11 and 1 o’clock; nor may they be employed before 
6 a. m. or after 9 p. m. Exception is made of persons 
employed in husking sheds or other places connected 
with canning factories where vegetables or grains are 
prepared for canning and where no machinery is oper¬ 
ated. Sunday labor is prohibited. One woman deputy 
factory inspector must be appointed, whose duty shall 
be to inspect conditions under which women and chil¬ 
dren labor. 

KANSAS. — Seats must be provided for female 
employes. Sunday labor is prohibited. No child under 
fourteen may be employed in coal mines, factories, or 
packing houses, or in any gainful occupation when 
school is in session. If under fourteen, they must not 
be employed in any acrobatic, immoral, or mendicant 
vocation. Children under sixteen may not be employed 
in any occupation dangerous to life or morals. There 
must be one female factory inspector who shall have 
charge of the enforcement of laws relating to health, 
sanitary conditions, hours of labor, and all other laws 
affecting the employment of female wage earners. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1985 


KENTUCKY. — Seats and suitable dressing rooms 
must be provided for female employes — at least one 
seat for every three employes. Women under twenty- 
one must not work more than ten hours a day or sixty 
hours a week, except for domestic service or nursing. 
Women of any age may not work longer than this in 
laundries, bakeries, factories, workshops, stores, hotels, 
restaurants., or telephone exchanges. Children under 
sixteen may not be employed in any acrobatic, mendi¬ 
cant, or immoral occupation. No child under fourteen 
shall work in factory, mill, or mine unless without 
other means of support. Sunday labor is prohibited. 

LOUISIANA. — No woman or girl can be em¬ 
ployed where intoxicating liquor is sold. Seats must 
be provided for female employes, also suitable dressing 
rooms. Thirty minutes must be allowed for lunch. 
No child under fifteen can engage in any acrobatic or 
theatrical public exhibition. No child under fourteen 
can be employed in mill or factory. No woman may 
work more than ten hours a day. Sunday labor is 
prohibited. 

MAINE. — No female under eighteen years of age 
and no woman shall be compelled to work more than 
ten hours a day, and in no case must the working hours 
exceed fifty-eight in any one week. No child under 
fourteen may be employed in any factory. No child 
under sixteen can be employed in acrobatic, immoral, 
or mendicant occupations. Sunday labor is prohibited. 
Seats must be provided for all female employes. 


1986 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


MARYLAND. — No woman or child may be em¬ 
ployed where intoxicating liquors are sold. No child 
under sixteen may be engaged in bottling intoxicating 
liquors, in breweries, or in handling packages contain¬ 
ing intoxicating liquors. No woman may be employed 
more than ten hours in any one day. If a woman is 
employed before 6 a. m. or after 10 p. m., she may not 
work more than eight hours a day, and no woman 
may work more than six hours consecutively without 
an interval of at least one-half hour. Children under 
sixteen must not engage in acrobatic, immoral, or men¬ 
dicant occupations. Children under twelve may not 
be employed in any business, except in the country 
from June 1 to October 15, in farm labor. Children 
under eighteen and women in factories must not be 
employed more than fifty-four hours per week. Sun¬ 
day labor is prohibited. 

MASSACHUSETTS. — Women may not be em¬ 
ployed two weeks before, nor four weeks after, child¬ 
birth. Seats must be provided for female employes, 
and no woman or young person shall be required to 
work more than six hours without at least thirty min¬ 
utes for lunch. Women cannot be employed in any 
manufacturing establishment between the hours of 10 
p. m. and 6 a. m., nor between 6 p. m. and 6 a. m. in 
any textile works. Persons under twenty-one cannot 
deliver messages or goods between 10 p. m. and 5 a. m. 
Children under ten cannot be newsboys on trains. Chil¬ 
dren under fifteen may not be engaged in acrobatic, 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1987 

immoral, or mendicant occupations, or in any exhibi¬ 
tions of children. No child under fourteen or illiterate 
under sixteen can be employed in any mercantile estab¬ 
lishment, factory, or workshop. Minors under eighteen 
may not work in barrooms, saloons, handling packages 
containing intoxicating liquors, bottling establishments, 
or breweries. Sunday labor is forbidden. Fifty-six 
hours is a week’s work for garment workers connected 
with mercantile establishments. 

MICHIGAN. — No female may be employed where 
intoxicating liquors are sold. Seats must be provided 
for women employes. Ten hours per day or fifty-four 
hours per week is the legal limit of hours of labor for 
women. No female under eighteen shall be employed 
between the hours of 10 p. m. and 5 a. m. No child 
under sixteen shall be employed in any manufacturing 
establishment or workshop, mine, or messenger service 
between 6 p. m. and 6 a. m. No child under eighteen 
may be employed between 10 p. m. and 5 a. m. in the 
transmission or distribution of messages or merchan¬ 
dise. No female under twenty-one may be employed 
in any occupation dangerous to life or morals, nor 
where duties require them to constantly stand. At least 
forty-five minutes must be allowed for lunch. No 
child under sixteen years of age shall be employed in 
any theater, variety show, moving-picture show, bur¬ 
lesque show, or other kind of playhouse, music, or 
dance hall, poolroom, or billiard room, or with any 


1988 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


traveling theatrical company. Sunday labor is pro¬ 
hibited. 

MINNESOTA. — No' woman shall be required or 
permitted to oil or clean moving machinery. No female 
under sixteen may be employed where constant stand¬ 
ing is necessary. Seats must be provided for all female 
employes. Children under eighteen may not engage 
in any acrobatic, mendicant, or immoral occupation, 
nor be employed between the hours of 6 p. m. and 
7 a. m. No child under fourteen may work in factory, 
mill, mine, or workshop, nor in any other employment 
when school is in session. No child under sixteen can 
be employed where intoxicating liquors are sold, nor in 
any occupation dangerous to life, limbs, health, or 
morals. Ten hours is a legal day’s work and fifty- 
eight hours per week in mercantile establishments, res¬ 
taurants, lunchrooms, or eating houses, or in kitchens 
operated in connection therewith. In mechanical or 
manufacturing establishments, telegraph or telephone 
offices, nine hours is a day’s work, or fifty-four hours 
per week. Females may be employed in retail mercan¬ 
tile establishments eleven hours on Saturday, but in no 
case more than fifty-eight hours per week. Sixty min¬ 
utes must be allowed for meals, and where employes 
work more than one hour after 6 p. m. twenty minutes 
for lunch before beginning overtime. Sunday labor is 
prohibited. A female factory inspector must be ap¬ 
pointed. 

MISSISSIPPI. — Children under twelve may not 


CHILDREN ON NIGHT SHIFT GOING TO WORK 

These children work from 6 P. M. to 6 A. M. Two of the smaller girls, with three other sisters work at night to 
support a big, lazy father. Largest girl has been working seven years. What is the law doing 

for these child slaves? 





























LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1991 


be employed in factory, mill, or manufacturing estab¬ 
lishment, nor in operating dangerous machinery. Chil¬ 
dren between twelve and sixteen cannot be employed 
without affidavits of age and school certificates. Sun¬ 
day labor is prohibited. 

MISSOURI. — Females must not be employed in 
dramshops, saloons, or other places where intoxicating 
liquors are sold, nor in mines or occupations which 
require constant standing. Seats must be provided for 
female employes. Children under eight years of age 
must not be employed in any occupation; may not be 
employed during school hours, if between eight and 
fourteen, without schooling certificate. No child under 
fourteen may work in any occupation dangerous to 
health or life, nor in any place where intoxicating 
liquors are sold, nor in any store, bowling alley, laun¬ 
dry, factory, manufactory, workshop. If under six¬ 
teen, may not engage in dangerous occupations. No 
boy under ten nor girl under sixteen may sell or offer 
for sale newspapers, magazines, periodicals, or other 
merchandise, in any street, hotel, railway station, place 
of public amusement, place where intoxicating liquors 
are sold or manufactured, or in public office buildings. 
Sunday labor is prohibited. No child under sixteen 
may work more than eight hours per day, or forty-eight 
hours in one week, nor before 7 a. m., nor after 7 p. m. 
No female may work more than nine hours per day, or 
fifty-four hours per week. 

MONTANA. — No female shall be employed more 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1992 

than nine hours per day, except in retail stores one 
week before Christmas or in case of emergency when 
life or property is in danger, and then for extra com¬ 
pensation. Seats must be provided for female em¬ 
ployes. Children under fourteen may not be employed 
during school term. Children under sixteen may not 
be employed during school term without a schooling 
certificate. Children under sixteen may not be em¬ 
ployed in underground mines, nor in factories, freight 
elevators, where machinery is operated, mills, messen¬ 
ger service, passenger elevators, railroads, smelters, tel¬ 
egraph or telephone service, workshops, or in any other 
service dangerous to life, health, or morals. No child 
under sixteen may be employed in any acrobatic, im¬ 
moral, or mendicant occupation. Sunday labor is pro¬ 
hibited. 

NEBRASKA. — The hours of employment for 
females must be between 6 a. m. and 10 p. m., except 
public-service corporations, who may employ females 
between these hours, but in no case more than eight 
consecutive hours. Seats must be provided for female 
employes. Mills, factories, and manufacturing estab¬ 
lishments must provide separate toilet and dressing- 
rooms. Children under fourteen must not be employed 
during school hours. Children under fourteen may 
not be employed where intoxicating liquors are sold, or 
in factory, hotel, bowling alley, laundry, store, place of 
amusement, office, messenger service, workshop, man¬ 
ufacturing or mercantile establishments. If between 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1993 


fourteen and sixteen, they must have schooling and 
health certificates. Nine hours is a legal day’s work, 
and fifty-four hours per week. 

NEVADA. — No special laws relating to women 
and children. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE. — Seats must be provided 
for all female employes. Women and girls are pro¬ 
hibited from employment in barrooms or selling or 
serving intoxicating liquors. No child under twelve 
may be employed in any factory, nor during school if 
under fourteen in any employment. If between four¬ 
teen and sixteen, without schooling certificate. Chil¬ 
dren under fourteen must not be employed in acrobatic, 
immoral, or mendicant occupations. No male under 
twenty-one can be engaged in selling or serving intox¬ 
icating liquors. Boys under ten and girls under six¬ 
teen may not be employed in street trades, nor in mes¬ 
senger service between 10 p. m. and 5 a. m. if under 
eighteen. The maximum hours of labor for boys un¬ 
der sixteen and girls under eighteen are fifty-eight per 
week, or eleven per day. No work allowed between 
7 p. in. and 6:30 a. m., except that children sixteen 
years of age may work in retail stores and telephone 
exchanges. Sunday labor prohibited. 

NEW JERSEY. — Seats and suitable dressing 
rooms must be provided for all female employes. 
Female employes must not be sent to houses of ill- 
repute. No girl under sixteen may sell papers or mag¬ 
azines on the street. Children under fourteen may not 


1994 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


be employed in factory, mill, or workshop. If between 
fourteen and sixteen, employes must have health cer¬ 
tificate if demanded by the inspector. No child under 
sixteen may be employed in cleaning moving machin¬ 
ery. Children under eighteen may not engage in acro¬ 
batic, immoral, or mendicant occupations. Hours for 
labor must be between 7 a. m. and 6 p. m., with one 
hour for noon lunch, except in fruit-canning establish¬ 
ments and in glass works. Young people under twenty- 
one cannot deliver messages between 10 p. m. and 5 
a. m. Children under sixteen may not work more than 
fifty-eight hours per week in any mercantile establish¬ 
ment, nor between 7 p. m. and 7 a. m., except during 
the Christmas holidays, when they may work until 10 
p. m. from the 15th until the 25th of December. They 
may also work until 9 p. m. one day each week. Sun¬ 
day labor is prohibited. 

NEW YORK. — No woman may be employed in 
factory, mercantile establishment, mill, or workshop 
within four weeks after she has given birth to a child. 
Seats must be provided for female employes. Women 
and girls are prohibited from working in mines or 
quarries, or operating dangerous machinery, or in any 
other dangerous occupation. They may not be em¬ 
ployed in barrooms or other places where intoxicating 
liquors are sold. If under twenty-one, they cannot be 
employed in cleaning moving machinery. If under 
sixteen, females may not sell newspapers, periodicals, 
or magazines on the street or in any public place. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1995 


Women may not be employed in occupations which 
require constant standing. Hours of labor for women 
are nine per day, or fifty-four per week, except in 
preserving establishments between June 15 and Octo¬ 
ber 15. Children under fourteen may not work during 
school term. If under fifteen, may not work in ele¬ 
vators or factories. If under sixteen, may not be 
employed in any dangerous occupation, or in any freight 
or passenger elevator, or in any acrobatic, immoral, or 
mendicant occupation. If under eighteen, may not be 
telegraph operators on railroads. No child under six¬ 
teen may work more than nine hours in any one day, 
nor more than fifty-four hours per week, or before 
8 a. m. or after 7 p. m. No female employe between 
sixteen and twenty-one shall be permitted to work in 
stores more than ten hours per day, or sixty hours per 
week, except from December 18 to December 24. 
Forty-five minutes must be allowed for noonday lunch. 

NORTH CAROLINA. — Where men and women 
are employed, separate dressing rooms must be pro¬ 
vided. Children under twelve may not be employed 
except in oyster canning and packing. If between 
twelve and thirteen, they may not be employed, except 
as apprentices after attending school four months dur¬ 
ing the preceding twelve months. Persons under 
eighteen may not work more than sixty hours in any 
one week. No boy or girl under sixteen may be em¬ 
ployed in any factory or manufacturing establishment 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1996 

between 9 p. m. and 6 a. m., nor shall they be required 
to work more than fifty-four hours per week. 

NORTH DAKOTA. — Children under fifteen may 
not be employed unless their labor is actually necessary 
for the support of the family. Employment during 
school hours is positively forbidden. Hours of labor 
for children under sixteen are fifty-eight per week. 
Sunday labor is prohibited. 

OHIO. — No female shall be employed where con¬ 
stant standing is necessary. Seats and suitable toilet 
rooms for female employes must be provided. Girls 
may not work after 7 p. m., nor before 6 a. m., nor 
may they work more than ten hours per day. Children 
under fourteen may not be employed in any occupation, 
and those under fifteen may not work in mines during 
vacation. Children under sixteen may not be employed 
in occupations dangerous to life or morals. Sunday 
labor is prohibited. Hours of labor for women are 
fifty-four per week. Thirty minutes must be allowed 
for lunch if lunchroom is provided. If no lunchroom, 
one hour must be allowed. Eight female visitors must 
be appointed by the chief factory inspector. 

OKLAHOMA. — No female may be employed in 
any underground mine or quarry. No female under 
sixteen may sell magazines, newspapers, or periodicals 
in any city, in out-of-door places. Children under six¬ 
teen may not be employed in any capacity where they 
may be compelled to stand constantly, nor may they be 
engaged in dangerous occupations. Boys under six- 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1997 


teen may not work in underground mines. If under 
fourteen, children may not be employed in any bowling 
alley, factory, workshop, pool ball, steam laundry, or 
theater. Eight hours is a legal day’s work for children 
under sixteen, except in agricultural and domestic serv¬ 
ice. Sunday labor is prohibited. 

OREGON.—The minimum age for employment in 
factories, workshops, mercantile establishments, and 
business offices is fourteen years, and for employment 
in telegraph, telephone offices, and public messenger 
service, sixteen years. No child under fourteen years 
of age can be employed during the school term. Chil¬ 
dren under sixteen cannot be employed between 6 p. m. 
and 7 a. m., and the hours of labor are limited to ten 
per day, with an intermission of thirty minutes at noon. 
Children between twelve and fourteen may be em¬ 
ployed in suitable work during vacation. Persons un¬ 
der eighteen may not engage in messenger service be¬ 
tween 10 p. m. and 5 a. m., nor can they be employed 
in elevators. Seats must be provided for female em¬ 
ployes. Hours of labor must not be more than ten in 
any one day in mill, factory, or manufacturing estab¬ 
lishment. Employes may work overtime when abso¬ 
lutely necessary, but not to exceed three hours per day, 
and must be paid one and one-half the regular wage 
for such overtime. Upon public works hours of labor 
are limited to eight per day, or forty-eight in any one 
week. 

PENNSYLVANIA. — Seats must be provided for 


1998 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


female employes. No female may work in any mine. 
Children under eighteen may not engage in mendicant 
or dangerous occupations. If under fifteen, they are 
prohibited from employment in acrobatic performances, 
nor may they work in dance halls, or where liquor is 
sold. Children under sixteen may not work in anthra¬ 
cite coal mines. No child under fourteen shall be em¬ 
ployed in any occupation or business. Hours of labor 
for females are limited to ten per day and fifty-eight 
per week. Children under sixteen must not be em¬ 
ployed more than ten hours per day, or fifty-eight in 
any one week. No female may work in any bakery, 
macaroni, or similar establishment more than twelve 
hours per day. 

RHODE ISLAND. — Seats must be provided for 
female employes. Hours of labor for all female work¬ 
ers are limited to ten per day, or fifty-four per week. 
Children under fourteen must not be employed. If 
under sixteen, they may not be employed in acrobatic, 
immoral, or mendicant occupations. Under eighteen, 
must not be employed on passenger elevators. Hours 
of labor for children under sixteen are limited to ten 
per day and fifty-four per week. Nor may they work 
between the hours of 8 p. m. and 6 a. m. Sunday labor 
is prohibited. Governor must appoint one woman 
assistant factory inspector. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. — Seats must be provided 
for female employes. Women employed in stores may 
not work more than twelve hours in any one day, nor 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


1999 


more than sixty hours per week, nor after 10 p. m. 
Children under twelve may not be employed. Children 
under sixteen must not be employed between 8 p. m. 
and 6 a. m. Sunday labor is forbidden. 

SOUTH DAKOTA. — No woman under eighteen 
shall work more than ten hours in any one day, or 
sixty hours per week, except farm laborers and domes¬ 
tic servants. Separate dressing rooms and seats must 
be provided for all female employes. No child under 
fourteen shall work at any time in any mine, factory, 
or workshop, nor in any mercantile establishment, 
except during vacation of public schools. Children 
under fifteen may not be employed when school is in 
session. No minor under twenty-one shall work in 
barrooms where intoxicating liquors are sold. No 
child under sixteen shall be employed at any time in 
any occupation dangerous to life, health, or morals, 
nor for more than ten hours per day or sixty hours 
per week, except on Saturdays and ten days prior to 
Christmas, when they may be employed until 10 p. m. 
Sunday labor is forbidden. 

TENNESSEE. — Seats must be provided for all 
female employes. No child under fourteen can work 
in factory, mine, workshop, telegraph, or telephone 
office, or in the distribution of merchandise or mes¬ 
sages. Hours of labor for women, and children under 
sixteen, are limited to sixty in any one week. Sunday 
labor is prohibited. 

TEXAS. — No females may be employed in saloons 


2000 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


or other places where liquors are sold. Children under 
twelve may not be employed. Children under fifteen 
may not work where dangerous machinery is used, or 
about machinery in any mill or factory, in any distillery 
or brewery. Children under this age may not work 
in any place where their health would be impaired or 
their morals injured, nor may they be sent as messen¬ 
gers to houses of ill-repute. Children under seventeen 
may not work in mines or quarries. Sunday labor is 
prohibited. Children between the ages of twelve and 
fourteen may not be employed between 6 p. m. and 
6. a. m. 

UTAH. — Women may not be employed in any 
saloon, brewery, or bottling establishment, or, if under 
twenty-one, in any restaurant or resort where liquor is 
sold. Women may not be employed for more than 
nine hours per day, or fifty-four hours per week, in 
manufacturing or mechanical establishments, laundries, 
hotels, telephone or telegraph offices. Females and 
children under fourteen may not work in mines. Chil¬ 
dren under fourteen may not be employed in any dan¬ 
gerous employment, and employment certificates will 
not be issued to children who are not able to read and 
write the English language. The maximum hours of 
labor for children under sixteen are fifty-four per 
week, except in season of fruit and vegetable packing. 
Boys under twelve and girls under sixteen may not 
engage in street trades, and permits must be obtained 
for those under sixteen who do engage in such occupa- 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2001 


tions, and they cannot work after 9 p. m. Messengers 
under twenty-one may not work between 9 p. m. and 
5 a. m., and they must not be sent to any objectionable 
place. Sunday labor is prohibited. 

VERMONT. — Women or girls under eighteen 
may not be employed more than eleven hours per day, 
or fifty-eight hours per week. No woman or girl may 
be employed in barrooms, nor male persons under 
twenty-one. No child under fourteen may be em¬ 
ployed in mill, factory, mine, quarry, railroad, or work¬ 
shop where more than ten persons are employed. No 
child under twelve shall be employed in any of these 
places, nor in delivering messages, nor in any office, 
store, restaurant, or hotel. Girls under eighteen can¬ 
not be employed where they must stand constantly. 
Children under sixteen may not work after 8 p. m., 
nor before 7 a. m., nor more than nine hours per-day, 
or fifty-four hours per week. Seats must be provided 
for female employes. Sunday labor is prohibited. 

VIRGINIA. — No woman or girl may be employed 
in any mine. Seats and separate dressing rooms must 
be provided for all female employes. Ten hours is a 
legal day’s work for all women and children under 
fourteen, except farm laborers and domestic servants 
or persons engaged in the care of live stock. No child 
under fourteen may be employed at any time in any 
factory or workshop, or about any mine, nor in any 
mercantile establishment except during vacation of pub¬ 
lic schools. No child under sixteen shall be employed 


2002 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


at any time in any occupation dangerous to life, health, 
or morals, nor more than ten hours in any one day, nor 
more than sixty hours in any one week, except on Sat¬ 
urdays and ten days prior to Christmas, when he or she 
may be employed till io o’clock at night. Every fac¬ 
tory, workshop, mine, mercantile establishment, or 
other place where children are engaged in labor at any 
time shall be at all times subject to inspection by the 
county superintendent of schools. Clean and sanitary 
conditions are required. 

WASHINGTON. — No female may be employed 
in mines, barrooms, beer halls, places of amusement 
where liquors are sold, saloons, or theaters. No female 
under nineteen may be employed as a messenger. Seats 
must be provided for women and girls. Hours of 
labor are limited to eight, except in canneries and in 
the harvesting of perishable fruits and vegetables. Chil¬ 
dren under twelve may not be employed in any factory, 
mill, or workshop. If under fifteen, may not be em¬ 
ployed without schooling permit. Males under four¬ 
teen and females under sixteen may not work at any 
inside employment, factory, mine, shop, or store, except 
on farm or at housework, without a permit. Children 
under eighteen may not be employed in acrobatic, im¬ 
moral, or mendicant occupations. 

WEST VIRGINIA. — No female may work in 
mines. Seats must be provided for female employes. 
Children under fourteen cannot be employed in or 
about factories, mills, workshops, or manufacturing 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2003 


establishments. Under this age, cannot be employed 
in any business without a permit. Children under six¬ 
teen are required to have an age and schooling certifi¬ 
cate. No child under fifteen may be employed in acro¬ 
batic, immoral, or dangerous occupation, or where in¬ 
toxicating liquors are sold. Children under eighteen 
are prohibited from engaging in mendicant occupations. 
Sunday labor not allowed. 

WISCONSIN. — No female under eighteen may be 
employed in selling papers in public places, or as boot¬ 
blacks, or in any street trade, or where constant stand¬ 
ing is necessary. Children under sixteen may not be 
employed in musical or theatrical establishments, in 
bowling alleys, or in any place where intoxicating 
liquors are made, bottled, sold, or given away. Chil¬ 
dren under eighteen may not work in mines or other 
dangerous occupations. Messenger service is prohib¬ 
ited between 8 p. m. and 6 a. m. for persons under 
twenty-one. Children under fourteen may not be em¬ 
ployed in any occupation. Eight hours per day, or 
forty-eight per week, for children under sixteen, are 
legal working hours. Hours of labor in manufactur¬ 
ing, mechanical, and mercantile establishments, laun¬ 
dries, restaurants, telegraph and telephone offices, or 
express or transportation companies are ten hours per 
day, or fifty-five hours per week. Eight hours per day 
for night work. One hour must be allowed for lunch, 
or dinner. Sunday labor is prohibited. 

WYOMING. — No female may work in any mine. 


2004 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


Seats must be provided for female employes. Children 
under fourteen may not be employed in any acrobatic, 
immoral, mendicant, or dangerous occupation. If un¬ 
der eighteen, may not be employed in mines. Sunday 
labor is forbidden. 

35. Are the public schools from the lowest grade to the 
State university open to girls on the same terms as men? 

Nearly all public schools, including universities and 
state colleges, are open to both sexes. 

There is a large number of sectarian schools and 
colleges, and others of high grade, supported by private 
endowments, which are coeducational, also many for 
boys alone, and others for girls, in most states, but 
these are not included, except where all or nearly all 
are coeducational. 

In Florida, women or girls are not admitted to the 
State university, but Florida has a State college for 
women. 

The Georgia University and the Georgia School of 
Technology are closed to women students. The North 
Georgia Agricultural college is coeducational. 

In Iowa, there are but two colleges in the entire state 
which do not admit women. One is a small Lutheran 
college at Clinton, and St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic 
college at Dubuque. All public and state schools offer 
the same educational advantages to women as to men. 

All schools and colleges in Kansas supported by the 
state are coeducational. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 2005 

The Maryland State Agricultural college is closed to 
women. 

In Michigan, the State College of Mines is for male 
students, also the Colorado State School of Mines, 
while similar schools in Montana, New Mexico, and 
South Dakota are open to both sexes. 

The public schools of New Jersey are open to boys 
and girls. This state has no university or school of 
equal grade, but it boasts of Rutgers, Stevens Institute 
of Technology, Princeton, and other high-grade col¬ 
leges, all for male students, but none of similar stand¬ 
ing for girls. 

New York has no state university or state college. 
All public schools are open to both sexes. There 
are ten high-class colleges which are coeducational; 
eighteen for male students only, including West Point, 
and five for women, including Wells, Barnhard, and 
Vassar. 

In North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Oregon all public 
schools, and all colleges, both public and private, are 
open to both sexes. 

Pennsylvania public schools and State college are 
open to boys and girls. There are seven colleges ex¬ 
clusively for women, including Bryn Mawr and Penn¬ 
sylvania College for Women at Pittsburgh. There 
are nineteen coeducational colleges, in addition to 
public schools and state colleges, and there are twelve 
colleges in the state which admit only male students. 

Rhode Island has but two colleges, the State college 


2006 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


and Brown University, both open to women students. 

The State university of South Carolina is open to 
women, but the Agricultural college, a state school, is 
for men students only. 

All public schools in South Dakota are open to girls, 
and all colleges, whether public or private, admit 
women students. 

Virginia public schools are open to both sexes, but 
women students are not admitted to the Polytechnic 
Institute, the State university, or to William and Mary 
college. 

In the State of Washington all public schools and 
every college is coeducational, except one Roman Cath¬ 
olic school for male students. 

The schools and colleges of West Virginia, whether 
public or private, are coeducational, except one which 
is exclusively for women. 

Wisconsin public and state schools are all coeduca¬ 
tional, also all other colleges, except one for male stu¬ 
dents and one for women. 

36. Are the professional schools open to women? 

All professional schools which are part of the state 
college or state university system are open to women 
in all states when these schools and universities are 
coeducational. Other professional schools are open to 
women in many states, and probably all would be if 
women were to demand entrance. 


THE DESIRE TO KNOW 

Italian girls studying English during a great strike of the garment workers 






















































LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2009 

37. Do the salaries paid women teachers average as high 
as the salaries paid men? 

In no state do the salaries of women teachers average 
as high as the salaries of men. In most states women 
have always been paid less than men for the same 
work, not only in schools, but wherever employed. In 
New York city, after a fight lasting for several years, 
a law was passed giving equal pay for equal work to 
men and women teachers. In states where women 
vote, female teachers receive the same salaries as are 
paid to men for the same grade of work. This has 
been the law in California since women became eligible 
to all educational offices. It is the law in Utah and 
Colorado. 

The salaries of men average about one-third higher 
than those paid women. During the last ten years all 
salaries have been increased, those of men about 35 
per cent, while the salaries of women have increased 
only 25 per cent. 

A greater number of men than women are employed 
as principals and in other of the higher positions in 
schools, and this is one reason why the average salary 
of the woman teacher is lower. 

No state aid may be given any school in Wisconsin 
for instruction in agriculture, domestic economy, man¬ 
ual training, or industrial branches unless the salary 
paid to every teacher of such branches is at least sixty 
dollars per month. 


2010 LAWS FOR WOMEN 

38. What states have women State Superintendents of 
schools? 

Colorado, Idaho, Washington, and Wyoming. 

39. Are women generally employed as county superin¬ 
tendents of schools? 

Yes, in some states. California has 20; Colorado, 
43; Idaho, 21; Illinois, 8; Iowa, 44; Kansas, 20; Mich¬ 
igan, 14; Minnesota, 23; Montana, 29; Missouri, 15; 
Nebraska, 42; New Mexico, 5; New York, 42; North 
Dakota, 24; Oklahoma, 14; Oregon, 1; South Dakota, 
28; Tennessee, 5; Utah, 2; Texas, 3; Washington, 14; 
Wisconsin, 16; Wyoming, 13. 

Montana, with thirty counties, and Wyoming, with 
fourteen counties, each has but one man county super¬ 
intendent. 

40. Are women superintendents of schools in large cities? 

Yes, in Chicago, Cleveland, and Denver. 

41. Are women on the school boards of large cities? 

Yes, they are on boards of education of the follow¬ 
ing cities which have a population of 300,000 or more: 
New York, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco, Mil¬ 
waukee, Washington, Minneapolis. Also in Indianap¬ 
olis, Worcester, Grand Rapids, Cambridge, Fall River, 
Rochester, St. Paul, Denver, Columbus, all cities whose 
population numbers from 100,000 to 300, GOQyfi^r ^ 

42. To what offices are women eligible? 

None in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2011 


Indiana, Maryland, New Hampshire, North Carolina, 
Ohio, Rhode Island, Virginia, West Virginia. 

Eligible to all offices in Arizona, California, Colo¬ 
rado, Idaho, Kansas, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and 
Wyoming. 

CONNECTICUT. — Boards of education, boards 
of school visitors, town school committees, or district 
committees. They may hold the office of assistant 
town clerk, register of births and marriages, or com¬ 
missioner of the supreme court. 

FLORIDA. — State Librarian. 

ILLINOIS. — Women are eligible to nearly all 
offices except those expressly reserved to male voters 
by the constitution. 

INDIANA. — Eligible to any office the election of 
which shall be vested in the General Assembly, or the 
apportionment to which shall be vested in the Gov¬ 
ernor, and to all school offices under school laws of 
the state. 

IOWA. — To all school offices, county recorder, 
county superintendent of schools, and school directors. 

KENTUCKY. — All school offices, or offices per¬ 
taining to the management of schools. 

LOUISIANA. — Eligible to any office of control or 
management under the school laws of the state. 

MAINE. — Not eligible to elective offices, but may 
be members of school committees. 

MASSACHUSETTS. — Eligible to membership on 


2012 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


school committees and as overseers of the poor, and by 
statute have been made eligible to many other offices. 

MICHIGAN. — Eligible to all school offices. 

MINNESOTA. — Eligible to any office pertaining 
to the management of schools or libraries, and to all 
appointive offices. 

MISSISSIPPI. — State Librarian. 

MISSOURI. — Eligible to all offices if there is no 
provision in the constitution requiring the incumbent to 
be a male. 

MONTANA. — Eligible as county superintendent 
of schools or any school district office. 

NEBRASKA. — Eligible to all offices not expressly 
forbidden by the constitution. They may hold school 
offices, and may be county treasurers. 

NEVADA. — County superintendents and school 
trustees. 

NEW JERSEY. — Eligible as members of boards 
of education and many other offices not forbidden by 
the constitution. 

NEW MEXICO. — No express disqualification for 
holding office, and by express enactment may hold any 
appointive office. 

NEW YORK. — Women are eligible to many offices 
and by express enactments they may be appointed to 
positions of trust and responsibility. 

NORTH DAKOTA. —Eligible to all school offices. 

OKLAHOMA. — Women may hold any office from 
which the constitution or laws do not exclude them. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2013 


PENNSYLVANIA. — Eligible to any office of con¬ 
trol or management under the school laws of the state. 

RHODE ISLAND. — Women may be members of 
school committees. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. —Eligible to office of libra¬ 
rian only. 

SOUTH DAKOTA. — Any office in the state ex¬ 
cept as otherwise provided in the constitution. 

TENNESSEE. — Eligible to the office of county 
superintendent of schools and to that of state librarian. 

TEXAS. — Not expressly excluded by the constitu¬ 
tion. Held eligible to be deputy county clerk. 

VERMONT. — Eligible to school offices, town 
offices, superintendent of schools, and trustees of pub¬ 
lic libraries. 

WISCONSIN. — Eligible to all school offices, either 
by election or appointment. 

43. Are any women on the Boards of Control of State 
Charitable Institutions? 

Many states have women on all such boards. Unless 
expressly stated who shall compose boards of control, 
there is no prohibition against women being appointed 
to these positions. That they do not hold them in all 
states is probably due to the fact that women have not 
demanded them. 

These are generally appointive offices, and unless 
there is an express requirement that women shall be 
appointed, it is left entirely to the discretion of the 


2014 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


Governor. The tendency of late has been to appoint 
women whenever practicable to do so. 

COLORADO. — State board is appointed by the 
Governor. The board of county visitors is composed 
of six persons, three of whom must be women. 

CONNECTICUT.—Two of the five members of 
the State Board of Charities must be women. One 
member of the board of education for the blind must 
be a woman. 

ILLINOIS. — Has many women on such boards. 
The assistant superintendent of free employment agen¬ 
cies must be a woman. The state Home for Juvenile 
Female Offenders has two women on its board of five 
trustees. Two G. A. R. men and three W. R. C. women 
compose the board of the Soldiers’ Widows’ home. 
Each state charitable institution must have a board of 
management of three members appointed by the Gov¬ 
ernor. He may appoint women if he chooses to do so. 

INDIANA. — Reform School for Girls has a board 
of managers composed entirely of women, and all em¬ 
ployes are female. Women are eligible on state board 
of charities and on county board of charities — which 
must be composed of six members, four men and two 
women. 

KANSAS. — Requires a matron at the detention 
home, police department, deaf and dumb institution, 
boys’ industrial school. Superintendent, teachers, and 
attendants of the girls’ industrial school must all be 
women. Two suitable women must be appointed as 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2015 


visitors to state institutions. Probation officers may 
be either men or women. 

KENTUCKY. — Requires boards of control of 
state institutions to be composed of four citizens ap¬ 
pointed by the Governor. May be either men or 
women. Women physicians must be employed at in¬ 
sane asylums where women are confined. 

LOUISIANA. — The Governor appoints the state 
board of charity and the board of administration of 
state insane asylums. They may be “persons” — no 
sex qualification. Women may be, and have been, 
appointed factory. inspectors. 

MAINE.— Two of the six trustees of the Maine 
Industrial School for Girls must be women, also one 
of the four assistants at insane hospitals and one of 
the seven trustees who have control and management 
of the state insane hospitals must be a woman. The 
Governor must appoint two members of the council and 
one woman as a committee to visit hospitals. 

MARYLAND. — The Board of State Aid and 
Charities of Maryland shall be composed of “seven 
discreet persons” appointed by the Governor. 

MASSACHUSETTS.—-Gives the Governor au¬ 
thority to appoint two of the nine persons composing 
the State Board of Charities. These members shall 
serve five years, and the supreme court of the state has 
held that the Governor may appoint women, because 
“persons” include women. The Governor appoints 
boards of control of - the State Industrial School for 


2016 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


Girls and the Lyman School for Boys, and two of the 
seven members must be women. Two women must 
be on boards of the various state insane institutions and 
state hospitals and state farm. 

MICHIGAN. — The Governor appoints the board 
of Hospitals for the Insane. There seems to be no 
qualification as to sex. Board of directors for Schools 
for the Deaf and for the Blind are appointed by the 
Governor, also for the State Public School and the 
Home for Feeble-minded. One woman must be ap¬ 
pointed on the board of the Industrial Home for Girls. 
The State Board of Charities and Corrections is to be 
composed of “ four suitable persons.” In this instance 
it is evident that the word “ persons ” was not intended 
to include women, because the Governor has been given 
authority to appoint “one or more suitable females” 
to inspect state institutions in behalf of the State Board 
of Charities. At least one deputy factory inspector 
must be a woman. Women physicians must be ap¬ 
pointed for all Hospitals for the Insane, Industrial 
Homes, Home for Feeble-minded, School for Deaf and 
Blind, and state institutions where boys and girls or 
men and women are confined. 

MINNESOTA. — State Board of Charities is com¬ 
posed of three members appointed by the Governor. 
This board may appoint competent women to visit and 
report on any hospital or asylum. 

MISSOURI. — State Board of Charities and Cor¬ 
rections is appointed by the Governor and is composed 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2017 


of six members, two of whom must be women. On 
petition of fifteen reputable citizens, the judge of the 
circuit court must appoint six persons, three of whom 
must be women, as a County Board of Visitors. The 
board of control of the Industrial School for Girls is 
composed of four men and two women. All the offi¬ 
cials must be women. There must be two women on 
the board of managers of the Colony for the Feeble¬ 
minded. 

MONTANA. — The State Board of Charities and 
Reform is appointed by the Governor. Has discretion 
to appoint women. 

NEW YORK. — There must be three women on the 
board of the State Asylum for Feeble-minded Women. 
-Two of the six managers of the House of Refuge 
must be women. Either sex may be appointed as man¬ 
agers of all such institutions, in the discretion of the 
Governor. There is no sex qualification as to the mem¬ 
bers of the State Board of Charities. 

OHIO. — No woman members of Boards of Con¬ 
trol or Charity, but a visiting committee may be ap¬ 
pointed for state institutions. There must be a female 
physician in all insane asylums. 

OKLAHOMA. — The constitution of Oklahoma 
provides that the Commissioner of Charities and Cor¬ 
rections may be of either sex. 

PENNSYLVANIA. — Women may be appointed 
members of the State Board of Visitors by the State 


2018 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


Board of Charities. Trustees of state hospitals or 
asylums may appoint a skillful woman physician when 
there are male and female patients. 

RHODE ISLAND. — There must be three women 
on the board of the State Home and School for Chil¬ 
dren, and three on the board of the Institution for the 
Deaf. There must be a board of female visitors to all 
penal institutions where women are confined. 

SOUTH DAKOTA. —The State Board of Chari¬ 
ties and Corrections is composed of five “persons” 
appointed by the Governor. 

VERMONT. — The Board of Visitors for Reform¬ 
atory and Penal institutions and insane asylums is com¬ 
posed of Governor, lieutenant-governor, and speaker. 
“ The Governor may in his discretion appoint a woman, 
a citizen of this state, as a member of said board. The 
duties of such woman member shall be only to exam¬ 
ine into the regulations and management of each in¬ 
stitution so far as relates to the female persons therein 
confined.” 

WEST VIRGINIA. — All officers, agents, and serv¬ 
ants of the Industrial School for Girls, in internal 
management, shall be women. 

WISCONSIN. — The State Board of Control and 
Charities is composed of five persons, one of whom 
shall be a woman. The Governor may appoint a suit¬ 
able person, male or female, to make investigation of 
state institutions. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2019 


44. May the apparent equal justice of our civil service laws 
be evaded if a head of department prefers a man rather than 
a woman who may have had higher marks? 

All states have not civil service laws. Heads of de¬ 
partments in all states are generally permitted to employ 
men if they prefer to do it. Such discrimination would 
not be showm in states where women have equal polit¬ 
ical rights. 

45. Are women admitted to practice law? 

Women are admitted to practice law in most states. 
In a few the question has not been tested because no 
woman has sought admission. In a few, either by 
the constitution of the state or by legislative authority, 
only men may be admitted. 

In Arkansas only male citizens may be admitted to 
practice law. 

In Delaware, “ there may be a competent number of 
persons of an honest disposition and learned in the 
law, admitted by the judges of the respective courts 
to practice as attorneys therein.” Women have been 
excluded under judicial interpretation of this provision. 
Another court might see a different meaning and intent 
in these words at the present time. 

Male citizens only are entitled to admission to the 
bar in Georgia, but, while women may not be admitted 
within the state, any woman who has been admitted 
in another state may practice law in Georgia. 

In Indiana, “every person of good moral character, 
being a voter, shall be entitled to admission to practice 


2020 


‘ LAWS FOR WOMEN 


in all courts of the state.” The supreme court has 
held that this does not prohibit the admission of 
women, the opinion stating that while the words of 
the constitution authorizes the admission of voters, it 
does not expressly exclude persons who are not voters. 

In Louisiana, “any citizen of the United States, 
possessing the qualifications (except residence) neces¬ 
sary to constitute a legal voter, shall be admitted to 
practice law.” Only male citizens are voters. The 
law states: “ Men are capable of all kinds of engage¬ 
ments and functions unless disqualified by reasons and 
causes applying to particular individuals. Women can¬ 
not be appointed to any public office nor perform any 
civil functions except those which the law expressly 
declares them capable of exercising.” 

Male citizens only may be admitted in Virginia, 
though any person duly authorized in another state 
may practice in this state. 

46. For what officers and on what questions have women 
a right to vote? 

For all officers and upon all questions in Wyoming 
since 1869; Colorado since 1893; Utah and Idaho since 
1896; Washington since 1910; California since 1911; 
Kansas, Oregon, and Arizona since November 5, 1912; 
Alaska since March 21, 1913. 

CONNECTICUT. — School officers and directors 
of public libraries, and upon questions relating to 
schools or libraries. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2021 


DELAWARE. — Women who are taxpayers may 
vote on questions of raising money for public school 
purposes. They may also vote on the establishment 
of free libraries and at elections for town library com¬ 
mission. In a few towns, by town charter, women 
vote on questions of raising money by taxation. 

ILLINOIS. — Since July, 1913, women may vote 
for all officers and upon all matters which the State 
Constitution does not specifically reserve for political 
action of male citizens only. 

IOWA. — Women do not vote for any officers. 
They may vote at any election held for the purpose of 
issuing bonds for municipal or school purposes or for 
the purpose of borrowing money or for increasing the 
tax levy. 

KENTUCKY. — Since 1912 women may vote for 
all, school officers and upon all school measures or 
questions submitted to a vote of the people. 

LOUISIANA. — Women who are taxpayers may 
vote at municipal or other political sub-division elec¬ 
tion, either in person or by agents authorized in writing, 
upon all questions submitted to a vote of the taxpayers,. 

MASSACHUSETTS. —Women may vote for 
school committees. 

MICHIGAN. — Women may vote for school offi¬ 
cers and upon school questions and, if taxpayers, may 
vote on question of taxation or the granting of fran¬ 
chises. 

MINNESOTA. — School officers and members of 


2022 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


library boards and upon any measure relating to schools 
or library boards. 

MISSISSIPPI. — School trustees in districts which 
are not cities, if patrons of the school. 

MONTANA. — The constitution gives women who 
are taxpayers a right to vote upon all questions sub¬ 
mitted to a vote of the taxpayers of the state, and also 
at any school district election upon school questions 
or for school officers. 

NEBRASKA. — Women who have children of 
school age or who own either real or personal prop¬ 
erty assessed in their own name, may vote for school 
officers and upon school questions. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE. —For school officers and 
upon school questions. 

NEW JERSEY. — Women vote upon all questions 
relating to appropriations for educational purposes. , 

NEW MEXICO. — Since 1910, for school officers 
and questions relating to schools. 

NEW YORK. — For all school officers and upon 
school questions. On questions of local taxation in 
towns and villages, if taxpayers. In all towns, villages, 
and third class cities women may vote on the issuance 
of bonds. 

NORTH DAKOTA. — All school officers except 
State and County Superintendents. 

OHIO. — Women may vote “ for members of the 
board of education and upon no other question.” 

OKLAHOMA. — For school officers of districts and 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 2023 

for members of school boards in cities, but upon no 
other question. 

SOUTH DAKOTA.-—For school officers or upon 
any other school question, if election is held solely for 
school purposes. State and County Superintendents 
are elected at general elections, so women do not vote 
for these officers. 

VERMONT. — Women may vote for school offi¬ 
cers and upon all matters pertaining to schools. 

WISCONSIN. — Women vote for school officers 
and on all school questions, whether at school or gen¬ 
eral elections. 

Women have no right to vote for any officer or 
upon any question in any of the following states: 
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, 
Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Penn¬ 
sylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, 
Texas, Virginia, West Virginia. 

47. What classes of persons are disfranchised? 

Minors, idiots, insane persons, criminals, and women. 
This is the general classification. Many states expressly 
name the crimes which are sufficient to disfranchise a 
citizen, while the same crimes in other states do not 
have this effect. The laws of some states disfranchise 
the criminal only while he is confined in prison. When 
released by pardon or by the expiration of his term of 
imprisonment, he may be reinvested with all the rights 
of citizenship without further action. This is the law 


2024 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


in Colorado, but Colorado women have been enfran¬ 
chised for twenty years. 

Delaware gives the legislature the power to impose 
the forfeiture of the right of suffrage as a punishment 
for crime. 

A person convicted of the crime of bribery at any 
election, or of voting under the influence of a bribe, 
may be disfranchised for ten years in the State of 
Maine. 

The constitution of Maryland provides that persons 
convicted of crime shall never be permitted to vote, 
and if convicted of bribery, directly or indirectly, or 
of illegal voting, shall be forever disqualified to hold 
any office of profit or trust or to vote at any election. 

48. May lapse of time or efforts of the disfranchised en¬ 
able them to become eligible? 

Lapse of time will certainly make minors eligible, 
and in some states restore the right of suffrage to 
criminals, and might cure the mentally defective. 
Lapse of time, combined with the efforts of the other 
disfranchised class, is rapidly securing to them full 
rights of citizenship, and eventually in all states this 
class — the disfranchised women — will become eligible. 

At the present time, Alaska, Arizona, California, 
Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Oregon, Utah, Washington, 
and Wyoming do not class women, simply because 
they are women, with other disfranchised citizens, and 



A SWEAT SHOP 

No conveniences provided ; poorly lighted and ventilated. 




















































































































LAWS FOR WOMEN 2027 

Illinois has almost entirely removed the disability of 
sex. 

49. Is it necessary that a constitutional amendment be 
passed before women can be allowed to vote for certain 
officers? 

Yes; constitutional amendments must be passed in 
all states that have not already given women full suf¬ 
frage, before women can vote for any officer mentioned 
in the state constitution, for whom “ qualified electors ” 
only may vote, all state constitutions having originally 
provided that only “male” persons are electors. 

50. What action is necessary before a constitutional amend¬ 
ment can be passed giving women full suffrage? 

(See also Suffrage Constitutional Amendments, Volume 
VII, Page 1804.) 

ALABAMA.—Any proposal to amend the consti¬ 
tution must pass both houses of the legislature by a 
two-thirds majority. After publication for three 
months it must then be submitted to the people, either 
at a special election called for that purpose, or at the 
next general election. 

ARKANSAS. — Must receive vote of a majority of 
both houses, be published for six months and then sub¬ 
mitted to a vote of the people. 

CONNECTICUT. — Must be proposed in the 
House, receive a majority vote, and published before 
the election of the next legislature, and must be ratified 
by a two-thirds vote of both houses of this second 
legislature, and then submitted to the people. 


2028 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


DELAWARE. — Proposed amendment must be 
passed by a two-thirds vote of both houses, be approved 
by the Governor, and published for at least three months 
before the election of the next legislature. If this next 
legislature approves by a three-fourths vote of each 
house, it is then a law. Does not have to be submitted 
to the voters. 

FLORIDA. — Must pass both houses by a vote of 
three-fifths, be published three months, and submitted 
to a vote of the people. If a majority favors the 
amendment it becomes law. 

GEORGIA. — Requires a two-thirds vote of both 
houses of one legislature. Must be published two 
months and submitted to the people. 

ILLINOIS. — Requires two-thirds vote of both 
houses of one legislature. Must then be published six 
weeks and submitted to the voters. 

INDIANA. — Must have majority of both houses 
of two successive legislatures, and then submitted to 
a vote of the qualified electors. 

IOWA. —Requires majority vote of both houses 
of two successive legislatures, after which it must be 
submitted to the people at the next general election, 
or at a special election called for that purpose. 

KENTUCKY. — Must receive a vote of three-fifths 
of the members of both houses of one legislature, be 
published at least ninety days, and submitted at the 
next general election. 

LOUISIANA. — Requires a vote of two-thirds of 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2029 


the members of both houses on three different days. 
Must be published for three months and then sub¬ 
mitted at next general election. 

MAINE.—A two-thirds vote of both houses of one 
legislature, and submitted to the voters. 

MARYLAND. — Requires a three-fifths vote of 
both houses of one legislature, then published and sub¬ 
mitted to the people. 

MASSACHUSETTS. — Must have a majority 
vote of members of the senate and two-thirds of the 
house, and be referred to the next legislature. If re¬ 
ceiving the same or greater vote of the second legis¬ 
lature, will then be submitted to the people. 

MICHIGAN. — Requires a two-thirds vote of both 
houses of one legislature, after which it may be sub¬ 
mitted to the voters at either the next spring or autumn 
election. 

MINNESOTA. — Requires a majority vote of both 
houses of one legislature and submission to the voters. 

MISSISSIPPI. — Must have a two-thirds vote of 
both houses on three successive days. Must be pub¬ 
lished three months and submitted to the voters. 

MISSOURI. — Requires majority of both houses 
of one legislature. Must be published four weeks and 
submitted to the voters. 

MONTANA. — Two-thirds of both houses of one 
legislature. Publication for three months and submis- 
sion to the voters. 

NEBRASKA. — A three-fifths vote of both houses 


2030 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


of one legislature. Publication for three months, and 
submission to a vote of the electors. 

NEVADA. — A majority of both houses of two 
legislatures. Must be published three months and sub¬ 
mitted to the voters. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE. — Has no provision for sub¬ 
mitting single amendments. People must demand a 
revision of the constitution, which can only be done 
by a constitutional convention not oftener than once 
in seven years. Revision must be approved by two- 
thirds of the voters. 

NEW JERSEY. — Must have a majority of both 
houses of two successive legislatures, and must be sub¬ 
mitted to the people within four months after adjourn¬ 
ment. 

NEW MEXICO. — Amendments may be proposed 
in either house and must have a favorable vote of two- 
thirds of both houses. They must then be published 
four consecutive weeks before the next election and 
then submitted to the electors. If a majority approves, 
they become a part of the constitution. 

NEW YORK. — Must have a majority of both 
houses and be published for three months before the 
election of the next legislature: It must be referred to 
this legislature, and if the amendment receives a two- 
thirds vote of both houses it must then be referred to 
the people for approval, and, if it receives a majority 
vote, becomes law. 

NORTH CAROLINA. — Requires a three-fifths 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2031 

vote of both houses of one legislature and submission 
to the voters. 

NORTH DAKOTA. — A majority of both houses 
of two legislatures, and submission to the voters. 

OHIO. — Must have a three-fifths vote in both 
houses of one legislature, be published for six months, 
and be submitted to the voters. 

OKLAHOMA. — Must have a majority vote of 
both houses of one legislature and then be referred to 
the people at the next general election. A special elec¬ 
tion may be ordered by a two-thirds vote of both 
houses. 

PENNSYLVANIA. — Requires a majority of both 
houses of two successive legislatures and submission 
to the voters. Amendments may not be submitted 
oftener than once in five years. 

RHODE ISLAND. — A majority of both houses 
of two legislatures, and submission to the voters. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. — A two-thirds vote of both 
houses of one legislature, and submission to the voters. 

SOUTH DAKOTA. — A majority vote of both 
houses of one legislature, and submission to the voters. 

TENNESSEE. — Requires majority of both houses 
of first legislature and two-thirds of both houses of 
second legislature, and submission to voters. Amend¬ 
ments can not be submitted oftener than once in six 
years. 

TEXAS. — Requires a two-thirds vote of both 
houses of one legislature and submission to the people. 


2032 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


VERMONT. — Must have a majority vote of the 
house and two-thirds of the senate in one legislature, 
and a majority of the house and senate in the next 
legislature, and submission to the voters. Amend¬ 
ments can be submitted only once in ten years. 

VIRGINIA. — Requires majority of both houses 
of two legislatures, and submission to the voters. 

WEST VIRGINIA. —Two-thirds vote of both 
houses of one legislature, and submission to voters. 

WISCONSIN. — A majority of both houses of 
two legislatures, and submission to voters. 


QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW. PART II 

1. What is the legal age for marriage in your state? 
What are the causes for divorce? 

2. Do women in your state share in the guardian¬ 
ship and control of their children ? Can a father will 
away the custody of an unborn child? 

5. Do you own your own clothes? Do clothing or 
personal ornaments purchased after marriage belong to 
the husband or wife? Who owns the wages earned 
by the wife outside of the home? 

4. Can a wife in your state convey her separate prop¬ 
erty without her husband's consent? What authority 
has the husband over her real estate or rentals there¬ 
from? Has she the right to will away her separate 
property? Can it be levied on for family necessaries 
ordered by her? 

5. Does the law in your state secure to the wife any 
portion of the family income? Has she a share in the 
surplus property accumulated by joint efforts? Is it 
legal for the husband to invest this surplus and take 
title in his own name? Do husband and wife inherit 
equally from each other? From a deceased child? 

6. Is a father responsible, in your state, for family 
expenses for wife and child if incurred without his ap¬ 
proval? Is the wife legally responsible for her hus¬ 
band's support? 


2033 


2034 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


7. Can a wife, in your state, have any voice in the 
choice of a family home? Can she ever become the 
legal “head of the family”? Has the husband any 
control over her liberty ? Can she make contracts with¬ 
out his consent? Or enter into a business partnership? 

8. Can a wife or husband testify for or against each 
other in your state? What is the punishment for wife 
desertion or non-support? 

p. What is the age of consent in your state? What 
is the penalty for crimes or offenses against women? 

10. What are the laws of your state for the protec¬ 
tion of wage earning women and children? At what 
age may children be employed for pay? 

11. Are your schools and colleges open to girls on 
the same terms as to men? Are professional schools? 

12. Can you hold office in your state? If so, to 
what offices are you eligible? Can you practice law if 
desired? For what officers can you vote? 

SUBJECTS FOR SPECIAL STUDY 

1. The personal and property rights of women in 
your state. 

2. The guardianship laws of your state as compared 
to other states. 

3. Penalty for “white slavery” and crimes against 
women. 

4. Public opportunities for zvomen in your state and 
duties of officers. (See Volumes IV, V, and VI on 
“Practical Politics.”) 












PART III 


Laws Affecting Woman’s Work 

By IRENE OSGOOD ANDREWS 
The Nature and Extent of the Problem 

T>ECAUSE of the physical differences between man 
and woman, the working woman is exposed to 
dangers which do not so seriously threaten the man 
worker. She, therefore, is granted special legislative 
favors. 

With a physique slighter and less strong, she does 
not have the resistance to conditions which insidiously 
break down health, lower vitality, and open the way to 
many kinds of degenerative diseases. In sharp con¬ 
trast with the leisurely, easy-going methods found in 
the early stages of factory production we see a new 
and threatening strain created in industry by the speed¬ 
ing up of machinery, by increasing the number of 
machines to be handled or attended by one person, and 
by the requirement of an ever-increasing output. The 
complexity of modern industry and machinery, in 
marked distinction with the simplicity of the earlier 
forms, has resulted in a division of labor which has 
greatly increased the monotony of work and tends to 
bring on a fatigued condition. 

2037 


2038 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


Today, also, we know more about the nature of 
fatigue.* Both European and American authorities 
have shown that the wastes of the body, which under 
normal conditions of work and exercise would be 
thrown off, under conditions of overwork and exhaus¬ 
tion are allowed to accumulate in the blood, and the 
worker is literally poisoned by her own waste products. 
The remedy for this fatigued condition is rest; and 
unless the health loss due to the exertions, of one day’s 
work is completely repaired before beginning the next 
day’s work, a constant and accumulating condition of 
deterioration occurs which will ultimately result in a 
complete physical breakdown. During this period the 
worker is constantly threatened by specific physical and 
moral dangers. This condition must be remedied by 
careful sanitary precautions in work places, by limiting 
the number of hours an employee is required to work in 
one day, and by requiring the workday to be broken 
by rest periods. 

Legislatures have, therefore, given her protection 
both by regulating the conditions and hours under 
which she may be employed, and also by entirely pro¬ 
hibiting her employment in especially dangerous occu¬ 
pations. In most states certain sanitary requirements 
must be conformed with if she is to be permitted to 
work, and more than three-fourths of the states limit 
the number of hours she may labor in one day or one 
week. 

* See “ Fatigue and Efficiency,” Josephine Goldmark, pub¬ 
lished by Russell Sage Foundation, New York, N. Y. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2039 


Because of the attitude of the courts, which uphold 
restrictive legislation affecting women mainly on the 
grounds of protection to health, it has been necessary 
to emphasize that side of the problem. But we should 
never lose sight of the fact that leisure for recreation, 
for education — in short, for citizenship — is an abso¬ 
lute necessity in order to maintain a standard of living 
which will make for the proper development of Amer¬ 
ican community life. 

This movement toward protective legislation was 
greatly stimulated by the significant increase during the 
last thirty years in the number of women industrially 
employed in this country. In 1880 this number reached 
nearly two and one-half million; in 1900 the number 
arose to over four and one-half million, and in 1910 
the number is reported to be between six and seven 
million. Upon the basis of the 1900 census we find 
that the number of female breadwinners is increasing 
faster than the number of male breadwinners, and also 
much faster than the adult female population; woman 
labor is also increasing faster than child labor. The 
largest proportions of women workers as compared 
with men are found in the North and South Atlantic 
divisions, but the largest absolute numbers are found 
in the North Atlantic division and in the North Central 
divisions of the states. 

Hour Legislation 

The more important protective legislation in this 
country has taken the form of limiting the hours of 


2040 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


work in all classes of industries where women are em¬ 
ployed except domestic service and agriculture. In 
this movement, which for the last generation has 
actively demanded the shortening of the work period 
for women, a new epoch was established by the decision 
of the United States Supreme 1 Court in 1908 (Muller v. 
Oregon, 208 U. S., 412), which declared that the Ore¬ 
gon ten-hour law for women workers was constitu¬ 
tional. 

Although organized labor and socially minded citi¬ 
zens succeeded as early as 1847 ' m placing upon the 
statute books of New Hampshire a ten-hour law for 
factory workers, followed during the next few years 
by several other states, yet these laws were practically 
dead letters, since “ into the statute was drafted a 
clause which permitted employers to hire for more than 
ten hours by special contract. Three days before the 
law went into effect New Hampshire employers sub¬ 
mitted such special contracts to their employees, giving 
them the option of working more than ten hours or not 
working at all. Strike after strike proved to the em¬ 
ployees the uselessness of resistance.” * 

In 1867 Wisconsin enacted a law which forbade an 
employer to compel a woman to work for more than 
eight hours a day. Obviously, such a law could not be 
enforced, and no effective hour limitations were im- 

* For a detailed history of the efforts of organized women 
workers to secure shorter hours, see “ The History of Women 
in Trade Unions,” by John B. Andrews, Ph. D., U. S. Senate 
Document, No. 645, 61 Congress, 2nd Session, Vol. X, 1911. 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2041 


posed in that state until very recently. But in 1876 a 
ten-hour law was passed in Massachusetts which the 
state supreme court upheld, saying that this limitation 
did not prevent a woman from working outside a fac¬ 
tory for as many hours as she wished, but only limited 
the number of hours she might be employed within an 
establishment. (Com. v. Hamilton Mfg. Co., 120 
Mass. 383.) A decided setback occurred, however, 
when, in 1895, ^ ie Illinois supreme court declared an 
eight-hour law for women unconstitutional as depriving 
her of property rights without due process of law. 
(Ritchie v. People, 155 Ill., 98.) From this time until 
the Oregon decision in 1908 there was no definite assur¬ 
ance that hour limitation laws when passed by the legis¬ 
latures would be sustained by the courts. 

In the Oregon case a mass of evidence was produced 
showing the ill effects of long hours upon the health 
of working women, which ultimately, through the 
process of reproduction, becomes a serious drag upon 
the general health and welfare of the nation. Under 
the guise, then, of promoting the “general welfare” 
of the nation, hour limitation laws for women have 
since the time of the Oregon decision been generally 
upheld by the courts, favorable decisions having been 
given in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Washington, Cali¬ 
fornia, and New York; the last five years have seen a 
very great advance in this kind of legislation. 

Today we find legislation materially shortening the 
length of the working day for women in a large num- 


2042 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


ber of industrial groups in thirty-seven states. These 
include all of the important industrial states and omit 
only a few in the southern and western sections of the 
country. 

The most advanced position in hour regulation has 
been taken by Arizona, California, and Washington, all 
three states having enacted eight-hour-day laws, and by 
Colorado, which, in November, 1912, by a referendum 
vote, also established an eight-hour day for women; 
but, in addition, California limits hours to forty-eight 
a week, while Arizona, Washington, and Colorado per¬ 
mit seven-day labor, or fifty-six hours a week. 

A second group comprises those states which have 
reduced hours below ten a day and sixty a week, but 
permit more than eight hours a day. These are: 


State 

Minnesota* 
Missouri .. 
Nebraska .. 
Utah . 


Hours per Hours per 
day week 

••9 54 

••9 54 

••9 54 

••9 54 


Still another group permits ten or more hours a day, 
but places a weekly limit of less than sixty hours. By 
this plan a half-holiday on Saturday is secured for the 
women, or at least shorter hours on one day of the 
week. The states found in this group are: 


State 

Connecticut .. 

Delaware 

Massachusetts* 


Hours per Hours per 
day week 

• • to 55 

•to 55 

•10 54 









LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2043 


State 

Michigan . 

New Hampshire 

New York*. 

Ohio . 

Pennsylvania ... 
Rhode Island .. 

Texas . 

Vermont .. 

Wisconsin .. 


Hours per Hours per 
day week 

• • 10 54 

.. 10 # 55 

.. 10 54 

• • 10 54 

•... 10 54 

.. 10 54 

.. 10 54 

..11 58 

• • 10 55 


The following states have a sixty-hour limitation, 
but Oregon, through her Industrial Welfare Commis¬ 
sion, has already reduced hours below the statutory 
limit, as described later in the section on “ The Regula¬ 
tion of Hours and Wages by Commissions” : 


State 

Hours per 

Hours per 


day 

week 

Georgia . 

. 10 

60 

Kentucky . 

. 10 

60 

Louisiana . 

. 10 

60 

Maine . 


60 

Maryland* . 

. 10 

60 

New Jersey . 


60 

North Carolina . 

— 

60 

Oregon* .. 


60 

South Carolina* . 

. 11 

60 

Tennessee . 

. — 

60 


No weekly limitations have been placed in the follow¬ 
ing states, which, in each case, therefore, permit more 


than sixty hours a week, and may also permit labor on 
seven days of the week : 


State 

Idaho . 

Illinois . 

Montana . 

North Dakota* 
Oklahoma* ... 
South Dakota* 
Virginia . 


Hours per day 
9 
10 
9 
10 
10 
10 
10 




























2044 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


There remain eleven states and the District of Colum¬ 
bia which have no laws regulating the daily hours of 
labor for women: 

Alabama 
Arkansas 
Florida 
Iowa 
Indiana 
Kansas 

Exceptions permitting overtime under certain circum¬ 
stances occur in these laws in most states, but overtime 
is usually limited to making up time lost in repairing 
machinery, or is permitted in order to secure one shorter 
work day a week. But in Maine, overtime above the 
fifty-eight-hour limit is allowed, so that work for sixty 
hours a week is permitted for over half the year. 
Maryland and Massachusetts extend the work period 
in seasonal and manufacturing industries, provided the 
average per week for the entire year does not exceed 
the regular statutory limit. The laws of North Dakota, 
Oklahoma, South Dakota are so worded, by the inclu¬ 
sion of the word “compel,” as to make enforcement 
practically impossible, and compliance with the law 
must be left to the voluntary action of the employer. 
In a few states a longer number of hours of work are 
allowed in certain classes of industry, as, in Connecti¬ 
cut, there are no day limitations in mercantile establish¬ 
ments ; in Massachusetts, two additional hours, or fifty- 
six a week, are permitted in work shops for repairing 

*Exceptions are to be noted. 


Mississippi 
Nevada 
New Mexico 
West Virginia 
Wyoming 



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LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2047 


garments; in mercantile establishments, in Minnesota, 
ten hours a day and fifty-eight a week, are permitted, 
and twelve a day, with sixty a week, in South Carolina. 
The # exact situation in any state can be ascertained only 
by a careful study of the text of the law and a knowl¬ 
edge of the effectiveness of the enforcing machinery of 
the state.* 

Industries Affected by Hour Legislation 

The industries affected by hour legislation in practi¬ 
cally all of our states are manufacturing, mechanical, 
and mercantile establishments, laundries and restau¬ 
rants; several states include, in addition, offices, hotels, 
bakeries, express and transportation companies, and 
telephone and telegraph offices. In a few states, such 
as Pennsylvania, Illinois, and California, practically 
every place where women are employed, except agricul¬ 
ture and domestic service, is under the hour-limitation 
laws; in many of the southern states, however, the laws 
are so limited in scope that they affect only a very few 
employees. 

In a few states the question has arisen whether or 
not work in hotels is sufficiently injurious to health 
to make hour limitations valid; but the point has been 
decided affirmatively in the courts of both Illinois 
(People v. Elerding, 98 Northeastern Reporter, 982) 

* For a complete analysis of these laws see “American 
Labor Legislation Review,” Vol. II, No. 4 and Vol. Ill, No. 3 . 
131 East 23 St., New York, N. Y. 


2048 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


and California (Ex parte Miller, 124 Pacific Reporter, 

427)- 

The question of work in harvesting, canning and pre¬ 
serving fresh fruit, fish, or vegetables has presented 
many difficulties. On account of the seasonal character 
of this work and the perishable nature of the materials, 
it has been the custom to work employees for extremely 
long hours, running sometimes as high as fourteen to 
eighteen hours a day, and ninety to ninety-six hours a 
week, during the rush season. Operators of canneries 
have therefore vigorously opposed any legislation which 
would limit the hours of work during the summer 
months. But it was argued that if this industry was 
specifically exempted, other industries included in the 
act would immediately bring the law into the courts on 
the ground of “class legislation,” and, if their conten¬ 
tion was sustained, the entire law would be lost. This 
latter point, however, came up in the Michigan courts 
under the woman’s work law of 1909, and the exemp¬ 
tion of the canneries was held not to be class legisla¬ 
tion, and the law was sustained. (Withey v. Bloem, 
128 Northwestern Reporter, 913.) Several states, fear¬ 
ful of the opposition of the canners, followed the exam¬ 
ple of Michigan and permitted unlimited hours of work 
for the women and children employed during the sum¬ 
mer months in this industry. 

But a more scientific solution of the problem has been 
attempted in New York and Wisconsin in 1913. In 
both states, instead of removing all restrictions, em- 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2049 


ployees are permitted, for limited periods during the 
height of the canning season, to work longer hours than 
the regular statutory limit, but this overtime must not 
exceed a certain stated maximum. This method will 
doubtless be extended at least to those states which have 
the power to regulate hours of work for women, as 
described later. 

Rest Periods 

The question of rest periods during the working day 
has received no legal attention in this country except 
that one-half hour to one hour is often required for the 
noon meal. With the increasing speed and complexity 
of modern industry, entailing great nervous strain, 
short intervals of rest in the middle of the morning and 
afternoon would mean much both to the physical wel¬ 
fare and the efficiency of the worker, and would, in 
addition, add to the value of his product. In the tele¬ 
phone service, for example, the nervous strain is par¬ 
ticularly severe. In the Report of the Royal Commis¬ 
sion on a Dispute Respecting Hours of Employment 
between the Bell Telephone Co. of Canada, Ltd., and 
operators at Toronto, Canada, 1907, it was recom¬ 
mended that the working day be not longer than six 
hours, spread over a period of from eight, to eight and 
three-quarters hours; this would allow for at least three 
rest periods of from one-half to one hour’s duration. 
Such rest periods in various industries have been volun¬ 
tarily adopted in a few American establishments, and 
are provided for by law in several European countries. 


2050 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


Night Work 

In addition to protecting women by limiting their 
working hours in the day time, several attempts have 
been made to prevent altogether their work at night. 
Although the dangers, both physical and moral, sur¬ 
rounding the night work of women have frequently 
been disclosed, they have received but little legal recog¬ 
nition in this country. As already emphasized, recovery 
from fatigue is secured mainly through rest and sleep. 
Sleep lost at night can seldom be adequately made up 
in the day time, especially in the noisy and crowded con¬ 
ditions of many of the homes of the working people of 
our large cities. The moral dangers also to which 
women are exposed who must travel the streets at night 
should receive serious consideration in drafting legisla¬ 
tion upon this subject. From the standpoint of econ¬ 
omy, also, night work has been shown to be inefficient 
and defective in quality. 

Europe early recognized the seriousness of the prob¬ 
lem, and in 1906 the International Association for 
Labor Legislation called a convention which was at¬ 
tended by representatives from the fourteen leading 
European countries. An International Treaty was 
formed by which it was agreed to prohibit, as soon as 
possible, the industrial night work of women between 
10 p. m. and 5 a. m., and to allow eleven consecutive 
hours of rest at night. In practically all of these coun¬ 
tries the night-work prohibition was in force by Janu¬ 
ary, 1912. The backward condition of America in this 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2051 


respect is most striking. No state has an inclusive 
night-work prohibition law. Massachusetts prohibits 
work in factories, laundries, dressmaking establish¬ 
ments, etc., between 10 p. m. and 6 a. m.; and in tex¬ 
tile mills between 6 p. m. and 6 a. m. Night work is 
forbidden between 10 p. m. and 6 a. m. in manufactur¬ 
ing establishments in Indiana, and in several classes of 
employment in Nebraska. South Carolina has a law 
intended to prohibit work in mercantile establishments 
after 10 p. m., but the law is not enforcible because 
an employer is liable only for “requiring” overtime. 

In 1907 the New York law which prohibited the 
employment of women over twenty-one in factories 
between 9 p. m. and 6 a. m. was declared unconstitu¬ 
tional by the Supreme Court of that state (People v. 
Williams, 189 N. Y., 131). This decision had such a 
widespread effect that no legislation on this subject was 
attempted by the states until 1913, and in the meantime 
no such protection has been afforded those women who 
are compelled to work at night. In 1913 New York 
reaffirmed her earlier law, placing the closing hour at 
not later than 10 in the evening; Nebraska extended 
and reaffirmed her night-work law (which had been 
declared constitutional by a lower court), but permits 
public-service corporations to employ women for eight 
hours at night; in Pennsylvania, women may not be 
employed in manufacturing between 10 p. m. and 6 
a. m., but managers, superintendents, clerks, and sten¬ 
ographers are not included in the law. 


2052 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


Until these new acts have been tested in a superior 
court, we cannot know definitely whether or not we may 
enforce laws for the protection of women by prohibit¬ 
ing work at night. 

Prohibited Employments 

It has also been recognized that there are certain 
employments in which women should not be employed 
at all on account of unusual physical or moral dangers. 

We in America have done but little in this class of 
protective legislation; work in mines is forbidden in 
most of the mining states, and in saloons (except by 
members of the family) in about sixteen states; but in 
neither of these industries has the problem of female 
labor been as serious as it was and, to a certain extent, 
still is, in England and other foreign countries where 
prohibition is also enforced. We have also forbidden 
the employment of women in a few states in core 
rooms, in cleaning moving machinery, and in using 
emery, polishing, or buffing wheels where articles of the 
baser metals or of iridium are manufactured. But only 
a few investigations have been made in this country into 
the effects of work in the more, dangerous occupations, 
such as those involving the use of poisons; and practi¬ 
cally no attempt has been made to classify industrial 
occupations in order to distinguish between the more 
and the less harmful industries. 

In European countries the evil effects of certain kinds 
of work are much better known. Among workers using 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2053 


white lead, for instance, it was discovered that the per¬ 
centage of miscarriages and still-births among mar¬ 
ried women was exceedingly high, and that a serious 
derangement of the reproductive organs frequently oc¬ 
curred. Therefore in most of these countries women 
are forbidden to work in the dangerous processes 
involving the use of this poison. In France, females 
are forbidden to enter a place in which any one of 
forty-six processes are carried on, because of the danger 
to health from poisoning or disease due to high tem¬ 
perature or presence of injurious fumes, gases, or 
dusts. Another list of nearly one hundred occupations 
is forbidden to females, except under special protective 
conditions. Even Spain has forbidden the employment 
of females and minor children in a long list of occupa¬ 
tions. While it is true that women in foreign countries 
are employed in occupations where in this country only 
men are found, or where the specific process differs 
greatly, yet investigations have shown that our women 
work under conditions extremely dangerous to their 
health and from which they should be excluded entirely, 
unless the hours of labor are greatly reduced. 

It was not until 1911 that the prohibition of the 
industrial employment of women for a stated period 
before and after childbirth became the subject of legis¬ 
lation in America. Massachusetts in 1911, New York 
in 1912, and Connecticut and Vermont in 1913, passed 
such laws. Legislation of this character is common in 
European countries, but there it is frequently supple- 


2054 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


mented by provisions which permit the giving of finan¬ 
cial aid during the period of enforced idleness. This 
problem of working mothers is undoubtedly more seri¬ 
ous there, and, in addition, the enforcement of these 
measures is in many instances connected with both pub¬ 
lic and private insurance associations which greatly aid 
in effective administration. 


Seats, Toilets and Dressing Rooms 

Additional protection for the comfort, health, and 
morals of women workers is found in the requirements 
for suitable seats, sanitary and separate toilets, dressing 
rooms, and lunch rooms. These provisions form a very 
important factor in maintaining the health and morals 
of the working forces in any establishment; the char¬ 
acter of the work done is frequently such as to require 
street clothes to be exchanged for work clothes, and it 
is also highly desirable that a suitable place be provided 
where women and girls may eat their lunch, secure a 
little rest at the noon period, and where they may retire 
in case of illness. In a few states the laws require that 
medicine chests with suitable supplies be maintained in 
case of sickness or accident. While it is possible to see 
that seats are provided in establishments, it is prac¬ 
tically impossible to see that their use is permitted. 
Nearly all states require seats and toilets to be pro¬ 
vided, but only about one-third require dressing rooms 
to be maintained. 


IN THE BATTLE FOR THE DAILY BREAD 

Work-room is dark, poorly ventilated, and crowded with boxes and material. A good fire trap 















































LAWS FOR WOMEN 2057 

Enforcement of the Law 

If the gains intended in this protective legislation are 
to be made real, we must look to the efficiency of the 
enforcing power of the state. State factory inspection 
departments are usually entrusted with the administra¬ 
tion of these laws. Inspection departments exist in 
most industrial states, but with varying efficiency in 
law enforcement. In a few states, no administrative 
authority is provided, and enforcement depends entirely 
upon individual complaints filed with the prosecuting 
officials. Penalties ranging ordinarily from $25 to 
$500 are usually imposed for violations, and imprison¬ 
ment for a stated period is frequently included, although 
this latter penalty is seldom if ever imposed. Detection 
of violation is one of the most difficult problems; as an 
aid to this, most states require that notices be posted 
which state the time of beginning and ending work, the 
length of the working day, and the time allowed for 
meals; in addition, in a few states, each employer must 
keep a book, open to the inspector, with a record of the 
number of hours each girl works during the day. In 
this way the inspector can tell, upon entering an estab¬ 
lishment, whether or not a girl is working a longer 
number of hours than the legal rate; this direct and 
personal knowledge of violations is. frequently the only 
evidence that will stand the test of the court. 

Another aid in detecting violations is the establish¬ 
ment of a definite closing hour beyond which it is illegal 
for women to be employed; overtime work, or irregular 


2058 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


allotment of hours makes the enforcement of the law 
most difficult. It also frequently happens, especially 
among the foreign-speaking workers, that they are not 
cognizant of their rights under the law, and the em¬ 
ployer may therefore work them overtime without resist¬ 
ance on their part. In order to avoid this condition, 
some states require notices to be posted containing a 
brief abstract of the law printed in as many languages 
as may be necessary, and in a size, type, and place 
prominent enough to be easily read by all employees. 
In case of violations, this posted notice is evidence of a 
knowledge of the provisions contained in the law. 

The Regulation of Hours and Wages by Commissions 

The last two years have each seen the introduction 
of a new principle in labor legislation affecting women 
and children. In 1912 Massachusetts established the 
principle of determining a minimum wage for women 
and children in any occupation. The year 1913 has seen 
the introduction of the principle which permits boards 
or commissions to determine the number of hours a 
woman or child may work, within statutory limits, in 
any given occupation, and to determine the conditions 
under which work may be carried on. These two lines 
of activity will, if efficiently carried out, mean much to 
the woman and the child worker, especially in industrial 
employments. 

Commissions to study the general work of women 
and children were created in 1913 in Connecticut and 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2059 


Indiana; the Industrial Commission of Ohio was author¬ 
ized to gather information on the subject; commissions 
to study the minimum wage were established in Michi¬ 
gan and New York, and minimum wage boards were 
provided for in Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Cali¬ 
fornia, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Wisconsin; and Utah 
established a minimum wage for females by statute law. 

In all these states, except Utah, wages in any occu¬ 
pation are to be determined, after careful investigation, 
by representatives of employers and employees, together 
with representatives of the public. The findings of a 
board are, in most states, as in foreign countries, bind¬ 
ing upon the employer; but in Massachusetts and Ne¬ 
braska, the commissions, relying upon the compulsion 
of publicity, may only publish in the daily papers the 
names of the employers who do not pay the minimum 
agreed upon by the wage board; and, furthermore, an 
employer may apply to the courts for a restraining 
order, if, in his opinion, the payment of the minimum 
wage would take away reasonable profits. 

In Utah the law differs from those in other states, in 
that it establishes in the act itself a minimum wage of 
seventy-five cents a day for female minors under eight¬ 
een, ninety cents for adult female learners and appren¬ 
tices (time limited to one year), and one dollar and 
a quarter for experienced women workers. This 
measure is unique in its method, and is of doubtful 
constitutionality. 

While the method of procedure differs somewhat in 


206 o 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


each state, the main provisions are similar, and the 
analysis of the Oregon law will serve to illustrate the 
method of work in all states, except as noted above. 
In Oregon, it is declared unlawful to employ women 
or minors in any occupation for unreasonably long 
hours, or under surroundings or conditions detrimental 
to their health or morals, or to employ women at wages 
inadequate to supply the necessary cost of living to 
maintain them in health, or to employ minors at an un¬ 
reasonably low wage. The term “ minor ” means any 
person under the age of eighteen years. 

To enforce this declaration, an Industrial Welfare 
Commission is created, consisting of three unsalaried 
members, appointed by the Governor. One member 
must represent the employers, one the interests of the 
employees, and the third must be an impartial person, 
representing the public. The commission shall elect 
one of its members as chairman and shall choose a sec¬ 
retary and fix his salary. It may declare, for any occu¬ 
pation, standards of 

(a) Hours of labor for women and minors, not ex¬ 

ceeding the present ten-hour statutory limit; 

(b) Conditions of labor for women and minors; 

(c) Minimum wages for women workers; 

(d) Minimum wages for minors. 

Every employer is required to keep a register of all 
women and minors in his employ. The commission has 
power to inspect books, pay-rolls, and records and to 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2061 


investigate conditions which relate to the work of 
women or minors, and it may require full statements 
from employers regarding hours and wages, hold public 
hearings, subpoena witnesses, and administer oaths. If 
the commission finds any substantial number of women 
working for unduly long hours or low wages, in any 
occupation, it may call a conference to inquire and 
report upon conditions in that industry. The conference 
is to be composed of one or more of the commissioners, 
of not more than three representatives of the employers, 
three of the employees, and three disinterested persons, 
all appointed by the commission. The conference must 
report to the commission its findings and recommenda¬ 
tions, which may include minimum price as well as 
time rates, minimum wages for learners and appren¬ 
tices and the maximum length of time that this sum 
may be paid. As soon as the commission has approved 
the recommendation of the conference, it must hold a 
public hearing previously announced in at least two 
newspapers for at least once a week for four consecutive 
weeks. After the hearing it may issue an order which 
will put into effect the proposed recommendations, and 
will become operative after sixty days. 

The orders may be different for different branches of 
an occupation or for different localities, and, where a 
time rate wage has been established, a special license 
authorizing a lower wage may be given to a woman 
physically defective. On questions of fact, no appeal 
can be made, but on questions of law an appeal may be 


2062 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


made to the state Circuit Court for Multnomah County 
and to the state Supreme Court. 

For minors, the commission itself may determine, 
after investigation, standards of hours, wages, and con¬ 
ditions of work, and may issue orders in the same man¬ 
ner as for women workers. 

Any woman worker who is paid less than the estab¬ 
lished minimum wage may receive in a civil action the 
balance of her legal wages, together with attorney’s 
fees; any agreement for her to work at less than the 
established minimum is no defense in such an action. 
An employer who discharges or discriminates against 
an employee who has, or who he believes is about to 
testify in any proceedings, is guilty of a misdemeanor 
and subject to a fine of $25 to $100. Penalty for any 
person who violates the act, $25 to $100, or ten days to 
three months in jail, or both. 

The Oregon Commission is also the first one to reach 
an agreement as to wages. It fixed, in 1913, a mini¬ 
mum weekly wage of $8.64 for adults in all manufac¬ 
turing establishments and $9.25 for adult women clerks 
who are not apprentices. 

The minimum wage is to be fixed in relation to the 
cost of living in the community where the workers live. 
Difficulties at once present themselves, both in deter¬ 
mining, to the satisfaction of all parties concerned, what 
constitutes a living wage—whether only bare necessa¬ 
ries are to be included, or whether some account may 
be taken of those expenses which go toward the mental 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2063 

and moral welfare of the worker. Shall we accept Mrs. 
Gilman’s bold demand for “two rooms and a bath” for 
every grown-up human being? Again, what shall be 
the standard of income, that is, shall the income of an 
individual worker be considered alone in its relation 
to purchasing power over the necessaries of life, or shall 
the family income be taken as a standard? Can two 
minimum wage standards be fixed, one for the girl 
living alone, another for the girl living at home, sharing 
the income of the entire family? No doubt within the 
next five years some definite conclusions will be reached 
upon these subjects. 

These wage laws differ from those in European 
countries in that ours, for obvious constitutional rea¬ 
sons, do not apply to men, although in Minnesota male 
minors up to twenty-one years of age are included; 
neither do our acts always permit the employees to elect 
their own representatives on the wage boards. These 
acts do not fix wages by law, nor do they destroy the 
competitive element in wage fixing; they attempt only 
to place a lower limit beyond which wages may not fall. 
In the low-wage industries, women and children pre¬ 
dominate, and they are especially weak in bargaining 
power often because of their ignorance of the English 
language and lack of knowledge of American condi¬ 
tions. Women, too, present peculiar difficulties in the 
way of organization, and all of these factors make them 
especially helpless in keeping up their wages through 
their own bargaining power. 


2064 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


The problem of administration also presents the most 
serious difficulties in the matter of detecting violations 
of the law after a minimum wage has been promulgated 
and in effectively prosecuting violations after they have 
been discovered. As an aid in enforcing the law, the 
organization of the girls into trade unions has been 
found in England to be of the greatest value. 

In the meantime another important question arises: 
What will the courts say upon the subject ? While laws 
regulating hours and conditions of work ^or women 
are now quite generally upheld on the ground that the 
good health of women is essential to the welfare of the 
state, yet it is difficult to say whether or not the courts 
will accept the health argument when applied to wages. 
In this class of legislation, two questions must be deter¬ 
mined : first, Is it constitutional to regulate wage pay¬ 
ments? second, Is the method employed — that is, the 
delegation of the powers of the legislature to a commis¬ 
sion— constitution? In one state the first question of 
constitutionality cannot be raised. Ohio, in its recent 
constitutional convention, proposed a section relating 
definitely to this subject, which was subsequently 
adopted as part of the constitution of Ohio, which 
now says “laws may be passed fixing and regulating 
the hours of labor, establishing a minimum wage, and 
providing for the comfort, health, safety, and general 
welfare of all employees; and no other provision of 
the constitution shall impair or limit this power.” 

The regulation of wages establishes a new and broader 


JUST AN EVERY-DAY WORKSHOP 
But there is fair light and good air. (Paper-box makers) 


















LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2067 


aspect of the “general-welfare” principle, which, if sus¬ 
tained, can perhaps be extended to regulate the work 
of men. 

Administrative Regulation of Hours 

Perhaps even more important than the creation of 
minimum-wage boards is the power given in 1913 to 
commissions in Oregon, California, Wisconsin, and 
Ohio to regulate, within statutory limits, the hours of 
work for women and children. It is obvious that in 
some occupations eight or even ten hours a day may 
not be physically injurious, while in other occupations, 
such as those involving the use of poisons, work under 
extremes of temperature or humidity, or excessive nerv¬ 
ous strain, seven, six, or even five, hours a day may 
seriously injure the health of the worker. 

Commissions in these states may, after thorough 
investigation, recommend for any occupation a working 
day which they believe will not be injurious to the 
women and children employed; and here also the Ore¬ 
gon Commission has recommended a nine-hour day and 
fifty-four-hour week in manufacturing establishments; 
eight hours and twenty minutes and fifty hours a week 
as the maximum in mercantile establishments, with the 
closing hour at 6 p. m. The statutory limit is ten hours 
a day and sixty hours a week. 

Women Administrators 

The employment of women as factory inspectors and 
on boards or commissions regulating labor conditions 


2068 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


is being extended to many states. In New York, 
women have for several years been employed as inspect¬ 
ors, but in 1913 the Department of Labor was authorized 
to employ, out of a total of one hundred and twenty- 
five, “ not more than ” thirty women factory inspectors, 
to include one woman medical inspector at $2,500 a 
year and four women mercantile inspectors at from 
$1,000 to $1,500 a year. 

In the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Indus¬ 
try, one member of the Industrial Board at $10 per 
day and necessary expenses; one medical inspector at 
$2,500 a year, and five factory inspectors at $1,500 a 
year, must be women. 

The Bureaus of Labor in Minnesota and Washington 
have each had a Woman’s Department for several 
years, and in 1913 Tennessee and Utah each authorized 
the appointment of a woman deputy commissioner. 
Iowa and Kansas authorize women factory inspectors, 
and the appointment of women is required on the mini¬ 
mum wage boards of Oregon, Minnesota, Massachu¬ 
setts, Nebraska, and California, but not upon the Wash¬ 
ington board. Massachusetts and Pennsylvania require 
the appointment of at least one woman on the boards 
of the departments of labor and industry, but this pro¬ 
vision is omitted for those departments in Ohio, Wis¬ 
consin, and New York, although in the latter state 
women are serving upon both the Industrial Board and 
the Factory Investigating Commission. 

The method of establishing wages, hours, and condi- 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2069 


tions of work through boards or commissions is com¬ 
paratively new in American law and, with the en¬ 
lightened court decisions upholding hour limitations on 
woman’s work, it is doubtful if even the courts will feel 
inclined to split hairs over the constitutionality of the 
method here provided. 


QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW. PART III 


1. What is the relation of fatigue to efficiency ? 

2. In what way has efficiency been promoted by acts 
of state legislatures? 

j. What state first passed a law limiting the hours 
of employment for women workerst How was the 
law evaded? 

4. On what grounds did the Supreme Court of Illi¬ 
nois declare an eight-hour law for women as unconsti¬ 
tutional f Can a woman work longer than the legal 
day by holding two positions? 

5. On what evidence was the Oregon ten-hour law 
declared constitutional ? What action was taken in 
Arizona, California, and Washingtonf 

6. Does your state limit tile working hours for 
zvomenf If so, how long, and how compared to other 
statesf Can you help in any zvay to relieve the con¬ 
dition of your own womenf 

7. Have any of the states established a “Rest 
Period” during a working day? 

8. What is the position of your state regarding night 
work f What has been done in New York State, and 
how has it effected action in other states? 

p. What lines of employment are prohibited to 
woment In Europe f 

10. What protection for comfort, health, and morals 
2070 


LAWS FOR WOMEN 


2071 

of women workers is most required? What effect has 
this protection had on their efficiency? 

11. Look up the zvork being done by your state 
factory inspector. Is he enforcing the laws you have? 

12. What, in your opinion, is the minimum pay that 
should be given a woman for a days' work? What 
effect does low wages have on the morality and effi¬ 
ciency of employees? 

SUBJECTS FOR SPECIAL STUDY 

1. Fatigue and efficiency. 

2. The legal working day in your state. 

3. Working conditions in your stores, shops, and 
factories. 

4. Wages of women workers. The minimum wage. 

5. What a working girl in your state requires to sup¬ 
port herself in comfort and decency. How much for 
clothes, board, and incidentals. 

6. Home life of working women; particularly girls 
away from home and boarding in congested districts. 


PART IV 


The No-Vote-No-Tax Movement 

By BELLE SQUIRE 
A Demand for More Equitable Laws 

W HEN the history of the “ Votes for Women” 
movement shall finally have been written, doubt¬ 
less then it will be recognized that in America, at least, 
no phase of the struggle will have been more logical, 
more idealistic or more unique, than that carried on by 
a group of Chicago women who adopted for their creed, 
“No Vote No Tax” and carried their creed to its 
logical conclusion, so far as the personalty tax was 
concerned. 

The great possibilities of the situation were pointed 
out later by one of our most eloquent speakers, Mrs. 
Frances Squire Potter, when she likened the tactics 
of the No-Vote-No-Tax League to the “strike meth¬ 
od” of the industrial world. According to her, to 
resist organized oppression, whether in the State or in 
Industry, is at once dignified, courageous, and dramatic. 
It was she, too, who deplored the short-sightedness of 
the many rich women who, having been won over to the 
“suffrage cause,” were too timid or too conservative 
20 72 


NO VOTE NO TAX 


2073 


to take the stand of their less conspicuous sisters with 
regard to the tax question in its relation to the vote. 

A patriot is one who is willing to risk not only his 
life but his fortune for his country, though perhaps it 
might be just to admit that many of our patriots had 
nothing but their lives to lose. Perhaps, however, with 
the great advance that the suffrage cause has made in 
the last two or three years, the chance has forever gone 
for women of large wealth to achieve immortality not 
only in the history of their sex but of their country by 
their courage in defying to the limit the tax authorities 
and doing it effectively to arouse the public conscience. 
We are still in that raw state where large things awe 
us more than principle, and there was a time, not so 
far distant, when a woman of great wealth could have 
won deathless fame by putting her all in jeopardy, thus 
challenging the admiration of the world by the magnifi¬ 
cence of her sacrifice. It may be that there still are 
many backward communities where just such an awak¬ 
ening of the public conscience not only could, but ought 
to be made by women willing to endure the necessary 
publicity and to risk their fortunes by refusing to pay 
their taxes until the vote is won. 

Strangely enough, it has not been generally recog¬ 
nized that it is the tax-paying women who hold the 
strategic position in the suffrage struggle, in all Eng¬ 
lish speaking countries, at least, though perhaps the 
advantage could not be utilized without the widest 
publicity, for in order to be effective, it must be used 


2074 


NO VOTE NO TAX 


to create public opinion in favor of the fundamental 
principle that has been recognized as inherently just 
by the whole English race, except, perhaps, such as 
happen to be statesmen or politicians. 

As for the Chicago movement, it has been carried 
on by women of small means, modest professional 
women, teachers, homekeepers, and business women. 
True, they had not much to lose, but surely the all 
of one person is just as important to its owner as the 
all of another person. If one risks all she has, it mat¬ 
ters little whether it be her handful of furniture, her 
reputation or her position in the working world where¬ 
with her shelter, bread, and covering are bought, or 
whether her all is much personal and real property and 
an income large enough amply to supply the things 
that make life desirable. 

The point is that women can argue until they faint 
from weariness that “votes for women” is just and 
right and nothing will come of it, but if a woman who 
is due to pay taxes insists that she will abide by the 
fundamental principle of this particular Government 
and forthwith refuses publicly to pay anything into 
the public treasury until women are allowed to vote, 
she at once forces the question into the realm of practi¬ 
cal politics. Her refusal will precipitate the question. 
Either must the authorities force the issue with her 
by all the legal machinery at their command or else 
must they ignore her and thus prove the absolute justice 
of her stand. 


IDEAL SURROUNDINGS AND CONDITIONS FOR WOMEN WORKERS 

High ceilings, broad aisles; good light and air: rest rooms and every convenience for female employees 

(Store of Marshall Field & Co., Chicago) 

































2077 


NO VOTE NO TAX 

Not An Aristocratic Movement 

When the movement first began it was objected that 
a taxpayers’ organization must of necessity be an aristo¬ 
cratic movement, in as much as it seems to put the 
right to vote upon tax-paying grounds. They said, in 
their haste, that it was undemocratic, for, somehow, 
we always think of property holders as being wealthy. 
Why waste sympathy upon tax-payers ? They are 
fortunate indeed to have property upon which to pay 
taxes. 

As a rule we think of tax-payers as those only who 
stand in line before the collector’s office, pay their 
money and get their receipts or who send in a check 
and have it duly acknowledged. Yet it might not be 
amiss to investigate the tax-paying class briefly and 
find out who they really are. To begin with it might 
be asked if every one who receives a tax-receipt in his 
own name is in reality a tax-payer in the largest sense 
of the term? 

Take the case of a woman who pays taxes from an 
income derived from an inheritance, and who is obliged 
to make no exertion herself to pay the tax, beyond the 
mere physical act of drawing the money from the bank 
or hiding place and turning it over to the authorities, 
and compare her case with that of another woman, 
living in her own little home, which she has perhaps 
earned, but who is obliged to go out by the day, not 
only to earn her living, but to get the wherewithal that 
will entitle her to a tax receipt in her own name. Is 


2078 


NO VOTE NO TAX 


there any question as to which of these two persons is 
the actual tax-payer? 

Again, with regard to the renter and his landlord. 
It matters not whether the tenant rents a share in a 
room, a whole room, several rooms, a house or a flat. 
As a rule the landlord charges not only a fair interest 
upon his investment, but he adds enough to the rent 
to cover the cost of the taxes, the cost of repairs, plus 
the interest on the increase in the property value, if 
there be any. Although the landlord takes the money 
to the tax collector, it might well be asked, who is the 
real tax-payer, the landlord who gets the receipt or the 
tenant who earned the money with which the taxes 
were paid? 

This may be unusual reasoning, but it is undoubtedly 
logical. Taken, then, in the largest sense surely most 
of us, no matter how poor we may be, are actually tax¬ 
payers, the tax often increasing in proportion to the 
degree of poverty. Perhaps, by this reasoning we could 
well afford to have an aristocracy of tax-payers, and 
disfranchise none but tax-dodgers, whether they be 
wealthy landlords or homeless, hapless tramps. 

Not only is the No-Vote-No-Tax movement the 
essence of democracy as has been shown, but in that 
it aims to create favorable public opinion, through 
the somewhat drastic method of hazarding one’s 
fortune to call attention to the fundamental injus¬ 
tice of forcing those to pay for the upkeep of 
government who' have no voice in its affairs, the 


NO VOTE NO TAX 


2079 


movement is certainly idealistic. We believe that in 
every community, in every circle of friends, where a 
woman will refuse publicly to pay her taxes, that in 
that place a certain amount of public opinion will be 
crystallized in favor of fundamental American ideals. 
During Revolutionary times leaders of the revolt de¬ 
clared passionately that “he who takes my property 
from me without my consent deprives me of my liberty 
and makes me a slave.” By such reasoning, and surely 
it is respectable, the large majority of women in 
America are slaves, and as such should rebel against 
the tyranny that keeps them slaves in a land of free¬ 
dom. It is only by openly rebelling, however, that 
women can call public attention to the injustice of dis¬ 
franchisement. Let no woman think that she can do it 
effectively and still hide her light under a bushel. It 
must be done in the open. All the world who cares to 
listen must know about the deed, and knowing, they 
must begin to talk and by talking they will educate 
themselves, and surely she who succeeds in getting the 
populace to discuss fundamental principles has accom¬ 
plished her mission.* 

It Has Historic Sanction 

Just who it was first enunciated the idea that the pay¬ 
ment of taxes without a voice in government is tyranny, 

* The attention of the reader is called to the fact that the 
Illinois women have made the fight on the Personalty tax, and 
not on the Realty tax. So far they have succeeded in carrying 
their point. 


2080 


NO VOTE NO TAX 


no one really knows, but a pessimistic gentleman, also 
unknown, long ago averred that the fault lay with a 
meddling old typesetter in merrie England, who, in 
juggling his type about, hit quite by accident upon the 
telling phrase: “Taxation without representation is 
tyranny/’ It little matters, after all, who was the first 
to utter or publish the historic principle, for the idea 
found excellent soil, took root and grew lustily in the 
minds of Englishmen. 

It has been stated, upon good authority, that most of 
the wars in history have been occasioned, or more or 
less remotely connected with unfair taxation. If there 
is any act of government calculated to upset a free 
man’s equanimity, or even to arouse the poor in spirit, 
it is forcing him to pay taxes he thinks unjust. The 
idea, therefore, stubbornly grew in the British mind 
that it was tyranny to tax a man unless he had a voice 
in the levying of taxes and in their ultimate disposal. 

Now this idea of connecting votes with taxes came 
over to America with the early English colonists. If 
it had found welcome in the hearts of British men, it 
found an even warmer welcome in the hearts of the 
sturdy, liberty loving American colonists. 

So it was that when the British Parliament voted 
that the American colonists should pay a tax upon 
British imports, denying meantime those same colonists 
the right of parliamentary representation, their wrath 
kindled. To us of America all this is ancient history 
that every school child knows. 


NO VOTE NO TAX 


2081 


It must never be forgotten, either, that it never was 
the amount of the tax that the colonists opposed, but 
the fact that they were taxed without their consent, 
and the only way they could give their consent was by 
having representation in the English Parliament. This, 
the short-sighted politicians of that time would not 
allow, but the Americans insisted upon having the 
privilege of voting if they were to perform the duty 
of paying taxes. From all this it will be seen that 
the “ No-Vote-No-Tax ” cry of today has most eminent 
and respectable historic sanction. 

It is interesting to note in this connection that the 
women who are struggling in England for the ballot 
today are asking for exactly the same right for which 
American patriots contended so successfully, a century 
and more ago. No American man who is logical and 
knows his history will criticize the English movement 
or harshly condemn the women who are waging a blood¬ 
less civil war, instead of a gory one. Today the Eng¬ 
lish women stand exactly where the rebellious American 
colonists stood in 1776. Seven long and bitter years it 
took to convince the British statesmen of that time. 
They finally yielded, but only to the inexorable logic 
of bullets skillfully directed. Judging from present 
indications coupled with those of the past, it would 
seem that the skull of the average English statesman 
is congenitally so thick, that the only way he can be 
convinced is with brickbats or with bullets. It may be 
that the freedom of English women will not be accom- 


2082 


NO VOTE NO TAX 


plished until human blood is spilled upon the ground, 
not that their arguments are not convincing, not that 
they have not prayed and pleaded, though in vain; not 
that they have no wrongs, for they have many and 
grievous ones, but that those who are in power refuse, 
for selfish reasons, to be convinced. 

Not only has the “ No-Vote-No-Tax” theory historic 
sanction, but it has moral approbation. In the age-long 
struggle for liberty, men began to believe passionately 
that “ resistance to tyranny is obedience to God,” and 
to act upon their belief. It is the people who resist 
tyranny and injustice, who combat evil where they 
find it, who lead the world to liberty. Had no one 
ever had the courage to resist tyranny, how could the 
race have progressed? What freedom have we but 
that for which our forbears have fought and bled and 
died, or for which we ourselves contend? 

Truly there is no progress without battle. 

It Has No Legal Sanction 

Is there not an element of the ridiculous in the situa¬ 
tion when American women try to prove to American 
men that if taxation without representation was tyranny 
in 1776, A. D., it is still tyranny in 1913, A. D., and 
that what was tyranny for the men of the eighteenth 
century is also tyranny for the women of the twentieth 
century ? 

Legal sanction! Of course it has no legal sanction. 
The civil law lags behind public opinion and if laws are 


NO VOTE NO TAX 


2083 


to be changed, public opinion must first be changed. 
Lawyers do not deal in what ought to be, but in what 
was and is. So too, statesmen, as a rule. The wise 
politician, so it is said, has his ear to the ground, and 
at the psychological moment gives voice to what the 
people themselves are vainly trying to express. 

It is true that women who refuse to pay their taxes 
for historic and moral reasons are not legal in their 
tactics, but is any loyal American prepared to admit 
that the Boston Tea Party of 1776 or thereabouts was 
a perfectly legal proceeding at the time it occurred ? Is 
the question ever discussed in American schools as to 
whether the Revolutionary War was a legal affair, or 
whether George Washington and the gentlemen asso¬ 
ciated with him were within their legal rights? His¬ 
tory would be a very tame affair indeed, if every one 
consulted his lawyer before going to war or obtained 
legal advice before resisting wrong, and patriotism 
would be an unknown quantity. 

The Strategic Position of Tax-Paying Women 

Even as the men of the Revolution were logical in 
their rebellion, so the women of today who are in the 
same position can logically rebel against this great in¬ 
justice. Yet, somehow, it seems so pitifully ludicrous 
to be arguing this point more than six score years after 
it was so triumphantly carried. 

The fact still remains, however, that many women 
are oppressed, some of them most grievously, and here 


2084 


NO VOTE NO TAX 


is the important point: It is the women who are tax¬ 
payers in their own names, who hold the strategic posi¬ 
tion in the bloodless war that is being waged against 
the prejudices of popular opinion. The tax situation in 
America is abominable and calls for reform. So, too, 
the suffrage situation. If the tax-paying women of the 
nation would combine, they could, by concerted action, 
force the authorities of their various localities to take 
action both for suffrage and tax reform. 

What matter if it is illegal? If posterity not only 
excuses the lawlessness and illegality of the Revolution 
with all its violence, its heartaches, its bloodshed, but 
also glories in it, surely posterity will excuse the law¬ 
lessness of women brave enough to defy public opinion 
and risk loss of property for the sake of a principle that 
was established for men over a century ago ? Had the 
men of that time done otherwise than resist, there 
would have been no American nation today, nothing but 
a British colony, abject and cowering under the tyranny 
of British politicians. Not only America, but all the 
British colonies profited by our Revolution, when 
British statesmen finally learned that they could not 
trifle too long with pioneers and freemen. 

Would, then, that our American tax-paying women 
had the courage to take advantage of their strategic posi¬ 
tion and force the authorities to act! Foolish? Per¬ 
haps. No doubt the world-wise Tories of their day 
shook their heads and prophesied what the end' would 
be when headstrong patriots refused to pay the trifling 



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NO VOTE NO TAX 


2087 

tax on tea, which every loyal subject ought to be glad 
to pay so that his gracious sovereign might have much 
wherewith to carry on his wars to increase his royal 
glory. 

A tax on tea? Who cares for tea? Let it grow 
musty and mildewed in cellars or turn to amber the 
waters of a bay if Liberty be at stake! 

Our task is no less gigantic than was that of the 
Revolutionary fathers. They had to convince a wood¬ 
en-headed princeling and his bullet-headed courtiers 
that men who could subdue a great continent were capa¬ 
ble of defending their rights as Englishmen. Ours 
is to convince the sons of the whole world here as¬ 
sembled in America that it was no idle lesson that the 
wooden-headed king and his bullet-headed courtiers 
were forced to learn more than a century ago. 

Not with bayonets, however, but in a gentler way 
are we to force light into their skulls. Where men a 
century ago put bullets into the heads of their opponents 
we put ideas, which finally by the irresistible force of 
momentum open up the interiors of the densest 
craniums to the light of reason. It is for us to create 
public opinion; to educate. 

Furthermore, there is no more convincing argument 
that a woman can now make than to refuse to pay 
her taxes for the sake of the principle, and do it pub¬ 
licly. It is the age of the dollar mark. We worship 
at its shrine, and she who aims at its shining mark 
is likely to hit the bull’s-eye. Today, at least, the 


2088 NO VOTE NO TAX 

pocket nerve is the most sensitive nerve that the body 
politic possesses. 

The Great Cost of Buying Back Freedom 

Because the suffrage agitation has been of a peaceful 
nature in this country, because it has moved forward as 
an educational movement rather than as a war, few have 
realized at what an immense cost to the women of 
America, the right to vote is being bought. It is not 
alone time, energy, endurance, but actual money that 
is being spent, and freely spent. It will cost American I 
women perhaps millions of dollars to buy back the free-j 
dom that was so blithely signed away when the Four-' 
teenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution 
were passed. Small fortunes have been spent in at¬ 
tempts which, when viewed by themselves, have seemed 
fruitless. 

Several years ago it was estimated that, on an 
average, every twenty-nine days saw at least one suf¬ 
frage bill defeated somewhere in the United States. 
If such were the case, it speaks volumes for the courage 
and patience of American women and other volumes 
for the stupidity, ignorance, and selfishness of American 
politicians. What a commentary upon the intelligence 
of our state legislatures that practically every new 
moon witnessed an assembly somewhere reject the plea 
of its progressive women for citizenship! It is safe 
to say that every one of those defeated measures was 
mothered by one or more women, who journeyed to 


NO VOTE NO TAX 


2089 

the state capital, watched the fate of the bill sometimes 
for days and weeks, while expenses piled up, and then 
journeyed back again. 

Tons of literature have been distributed, fortunes 
have been spent in stationery and postage. Head¬ 
quarters have been maintained at heavy expense. De¬ 
voted women have given of their substance, of their 
time, their energy, their health, often to reap but ridicule 
that ended in defeat. 

The result of it all? A life-time of struggle by the 
devoted few has made ten states* entirely free, and has 
so smoothed the way of womanhood that many women 
have been lulled into lethargy, content with things as 
they are. Others, in their ignorance, and lacking wit, 
have gone themselves into politics to keep all other 
women out. They go about preaching that “woman’s 
place is in the home.” They boldly invade legislative 
halls, crying out that such places are not fit for women 
to enter, and, strangely enough, plead before be¬ 
wildered statesmen not to heed the demand of women 
bold enough to want mere vulgar rights instead of 
womanly influence! 

Meanwhile the Cause goes on triumphantly, gather¬ 
ing momentum as it goes. With astounding frequency 
legislatures are reversing the policy of former years 
and it now remains for some ardent adherent to com¬ 
pute how often, on an average, a suffrage bill is being 
passed by legislators abreast the times. The Cause of 

* Including Alaska. 


2090 


NO VOTE NO TAX 


women is moving forward with an ever increasing im¬ 
petus, but it is not yet won, and there is still a world 
of work to do. 

The lot of women has been immensely bettered in 
the home at least, but in the industrial world there are 
grave wrongs to be righted. Truly, as has been said, 
we are but at the cock-crow civilization! Perhaps, too, 
we shall remain there until this great fundamental 
wrong of women’s political slavery is removed forever. 
Grave problems are confronting us that never will be 
solved until the combined intelligence of the race, both 
male and female, is utilized by the State. 

Tragedy of the Situation 

If it should ever come to pass that girls develop the 
same pride in their sex that boys now have in their’s, 
and they begin to search their histories to see how men 
won their votes in order to compare their methods with 
those of the women who struggled for equal rights, 
they may be disappointed to find that so few women 
of property utilized their strategic position. For the 
benefit of such, should there ever be any, let me cite 
some of the difficulties under which the Woman Move¬ 
ment is making its slow and halting way. 

In the face of the possibilities of the situation, its 
tragedy seems almost ironical. Were the majority of 
tax-paying women young and strong, were the fires 
of youth coursing in their veins, it would be a simple 
matter to rouse them to concerted action. 


NO VOTE NO TAX 


2091 


Unfortunately the majority of this class of women 
seem to be old or middle-aged women; they are timid 
spinsters, frail widows, women often in precarious 
health. It is an easy thing to go out and die in a 
spectacular struggle for an abstract principle; it is more 
difficult to live and suffer for it. Far easier is it to 
face a rain of bullets than to endure the shafts of 
ridicule, or to take a course of action that might result 
in ostracism and slow starvation. It takes courage, 
bravery of a high order, or else a certain fool-hardiness 
to face the necessary publicity and the possible legal 
entanglements, than which nothing can be more trying 
and bewildering. 

It is difficult, too, to arouse enthusiasm in a war 
where each who enters it must needs fight alone against 
the host. Perhaps, as a matter of fact, few of the 
tax-paying women are qualified to act effectively, for 
to be efficient it must needs be a war of words. The 
best instrument is the pen, and the bullets to be fired 
are logical and unanswerable arguments, so skillfully 
worded as to penetrate and convince the densest in¬ 
tellect. Moreover this war of words must be carried 
on with the utmost publicity, and for untold centuries 
women have been drilled in the virtue of shunning pub¬ 
licity for fear of being misunderstood or misinterpreted. 

So we have this predicament, that, whereas the bat¬ 
tles that men have fought for the freedom of men have 
been fought mostly by the young men of the world; 
this battle of women for women would have to be 


2092 


NO VOTE NO TAX 


fought by the old, the middle-aged, the weak, the timid. 
The men’s battles have been fought by youths who were 
carried away by the glamour and excitement of war; 
youths who were fighting side by side with other youths 
eager for honor and glory, though often fired by a 
high and noble purpose. 

Said one earnest woman to me: “If you could con¬ 
vince me that it was right to take this stand, I would 
do it no matter what it might cost. But here I am, a 
woman in precarious health, with old age creeping on. 
Suppose some morning while I was teaching, the tax 
authorities would come in and confiscate my piano. It 
would ruin me professionally and financially. My class 
of little people would be scattered and I would be bank¬ 
rupt. How can I afford to have this happen ?” 

So this is the tragedy of the situation; those who 
are in a position to do this service are often in¬ 
capacitated in other ways. So let the girls of the future 
take this to their comfort, that the wars that men 
carried on are fought by the very flower of manhood, 
not by the decrepid, old, and weak. 

Yet think what it would mean should 1,000 women in 
various parts of this country take this stand simul¬ 
taneously! There would be 1,000 centers of public 
opinion in favor of justice. It would result in making 
100,000 people, nay! one million or ten times one 
million people begin to think about the relation of taxa¬ 
tion to the vote. 

We are in great need of tax reform. Think what 


NO VOTE NO TAX 


2093 


the tax-paying women might accomplish in the way of 
arousing public opinion and public enquiry upon this 
subject! 

In conclusion, it might be said that while it may be 
illegal for an American woman to refuse to pay her 
taxes, her refusal would be absolutely moral and would 
have the most respectable historic sanction. In fact, 
it is not difficult to reason out that under existing con¬ 
ditions it is absolutely immoral for an American woman 
to pay her taxes, and actually unn loral not to protest. 
The woman who meekly pays her share into the public 
treasury becomes herself a party to the tyranny against 
which she should rebel. Just so long as she helps to 
support it she is of the Government, whether she votes 
or not, and she should protest before, not after, the 
deed is done, and cease complaining. 

Surely it is the duty of every woman tax-payer, as 
a rational being, to protest against being forced to pay 
money to support a government which does not recog¬ 
nize her except on pay-day. As women it is our duty 
to insist upon the highest ideals in civic life and as tax¬ 
payers perhaps our privilege to force the Government, 
by every means in our power, to be true to its own 
fundamental principles. 

Brief History of the No-Vote-No-Tax League of Illinois 

The No-Vote-No-Tax League of Illinois was organ¬ 
ized in February, 1910, by a group of Chicago women, 
for the purpose of protecting Belle Squire, then a music 



2094 


NO VOTE NO TAX 


teacher, in her determination to pay no personal taxes 
until Illinois women should be given the ballot. The 
authorities not being willing, apparently, to force the 
issue with Miss Squire, the League took up the task 
of protecting other small tax-payers among women 
from injustice. Some of the members took the same 
stand as Miss Squire and refused to pay their personalty 
tax. 

For the benefit of women in other communities who 
may consider the advisability of forming a No-Vote- 
No-Tax League, it might be well to state, that the 
Illinois League is made up of both direct and indirect 
tax-payers. They have (i) a sustaining membership 
of men and women not directly or personally inter¬ 
ested in taxation as such : (2) a number of tax-payers 

who receive receipts in their own names; and (3) a 
smaller group of women who stand for the historic 
principle of “no vote no tax.” It is simply a case of 
the many combining to protect the few. 

The Illinois League is incorporated and has its own 
attorney, who is a member of the Executive Board. 
The attorney, Antoinette Funk, is conversant with the 
tax laws of Illinois and is especially interested in the 
Chicago situation. Because she is deeply interested, 
she advises members as to what might be advisable 
to do or not to do. 

In 1912, the League, acting on the advice of Mrs. 
Funk, called a Tax Strike, advising all tax-payers, 
especially the smaller ones, both men and women, to 


NO VOTE NO TAX 


2095 


refuse to pay their personalty taxes. This Tax Strike 
was advertised, at considerable cost, in all the big Chi¬ 
cago daily papers. The tax situation in Chicago is 
peculiarly disgraceful and the burden of taxation falls 
mainly upon the small property owners and modest 
householders owning property outside of what is known 
as the “Loop District.” This district one mile square, 
is situated in the very heart of the city and comprises, 
naturally, the most valuable property in Chicago. Not 
only is this fabulously valuable land absurdly under¬ 
assessed, owing to corrupt politics, but it is estimated 
that millions of dollars’ worth of personal property 
lying in the vaults inside this same Loop District 
escapes taxation every year, while people in humble 
homes, particularly if they be unrepresented women, 
are taxed out of all proportion to their holdings. 

The Tax Strike has little or nothing to do with the 
suffrage question and can go on for years until the tax 
laws are honestly amended and justice is accorded to 
the humblest person. It is a daring plan, but difficult 
to carry out, for it needs publicity which is difficult 
to achieve. The newspapers will not help as many of 
them have valuable holdings in the Loop District and 
thus escape their just share of taxation. 

The founders of this notable organization were 
Minona S. Jones, Margaret Haley, Fannie H. Rastall, 
Charlotte C. Rhodus and Susan Radley. The League 
has had a spectacular and dramatic career and has done 


2096 


NO VOTE NO TAX 


much to further the suffrage cause, especially in Chi¬ 
cago and Illinois. 

Note.— Owing to the lack of uniformity in State laws on the 
subject of taxation, together with possible political complications 
in the various localities, it will doubtless be found that the tax 
situation in many communities is peculiar to itself. Therefore, 
the tax-payers of no one State, or perhaps of no one community, 
could safely advise those of another what to do. However, this 
should not deter women from protesting or rebelling against the 
tyranny of taxation without representation. 


QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW. PART V 

1. Which are the more vital — human rights or 
property rightsf 

2. Upon which theory was our Republic built — 
property rights, human rights, sex rightsf 

3. Would you say that the old <f taxation without 
representation is tyranny ” or that it only seems to put 
property rights ahead of human rights? 

4. What is the basis of taxation f How many kinds 
of taxation are theret Is it right to tax anything more 
than once? Do you know of any instances where prop¬ 
erty is taxed more than once? 

5. What is your attitude toward taxation? Do you 
look upon your taxes as an investment or as a dis¬ 
agreeable burdenf What is the proper attitudef 

6. What is the theory of the tax on landf Is there 
any difference in principle between taxing land and 
taxing buildings, furniture, etc.? 

7. What is it that makes land so valuable when 
it is valuable? Does it seem fair to be obliged to pay 
taxes on something which, like furniture, steadily de¬ 
preciates in value? 

8. Ccm you trace the reasoning by which men have 
denied to women the right to vote, yet have imposed 
upon them the duty of paying taxes and obeying laws 
in the making of which they have had no voice? 

2097 


PART V 


How to Assist Legislation 

By HARRIET G. R. WRIGHT 

HERE was never before in all the history of civil- 



-L ized countries the spectacle of such a large body of 
intelligent citizens to whom unusual privileges have been 
suddenly accorded as the one now presented to the world 
in the recent emancipation of several million women. 

They have accepted the political privileges accorded 
them calmly, with an earnest desire to fulfill their new 
duties with dignity to themselves and with benefit to 
the world. Such intelligence and interest has never 
been shown by any other newly enfranchised body of 
people. 

The women of Norway, Finland, New Zealand, and 
the United States have accepted their new responsibili¬ 
ties with an earnest, conscientious desire to perform 
these duties properly. 

This new electorate is composed of the educated and 
uneducated, in every rank of life. The great emancipa¬ 
tion in Russia, by royal decree, affected over five mil¬ 
lion of serfs,— people who were ignorant, economically 
dependent, superstitious, and unused to any freedom or 
initiative. 


2098 


LEGISLATION 


2099 


The emancipation of the negro in America was a 
parallel case. Their first exercise of the franchise was 
of no benefit to any one but the persons emancipated, as 
they could bring nothing of wisdom to the science of 
government, and no knowledge of wise methods to its 
administration. 

It has required years of education to raise such people 
to the dignity of useful citizenship. The conferring of 
political rights on women has been vastly different, espe¬ 
cially as the countries where women have received these 
rights are those in which they have been accorded educa¬ 
tional privileges, and the great mass are as well educated 
and intelligent as the male citizen. 

The social conditions in these countries are not like 
the cramped, restricted, secluded conditions of life 
imposed on women in many lands. The freedom of 
thought in democratic countries, the multiplication of 
magazines and periodicals for the home, have supplied 
women with a broader outlook on world affairs, and a 
better understanding of local issues. 

The opportunities for travel which many women 
enjoy have made them acquainted with universal con¬ 
ditions, and they have found they can, with perfect 
safety and propriety, do things that would have fright¬ 
ened their grandmothers to death. Women have out¬ 
grown many foolish, conservative notions as to their 
helplessness, and the “rainbow-tinted sphere” which 
they have been supposed to occupy has expanded, until 
its horizon embraces the world. 



2100 


LEGISLATION 


Readjustment of Laws Required 

Many women find themselves by necessity forced into 
the struggle for existence. Often they have not only 
themselves but others to support, and laws governing 
industrial conditions and property rights are found to 
be unfavorable to them. Some of the first problems 
confronting women are a readjustment of such laws, 
giving them a right to their own wages, the right and 
title to property, and possession of their children. 

Women are naturally interested in school laws, the 
enactment of pure-food laws and their strict enforce¬ 
ment, better sanitation, decent conditions in factories, 
fire protection in all public schools, factories, theatres, 
hotels, etc.; the abolition of child labor, not from the 
business point of view, but on account of the physical 
and moral welfare of the child, the future citizen. 
Women have learned that unjust laws are responsible 
not only for social evils but for social crimes; that the 
legal abuse of privilege and financial power is respon¬ 
sible for many economic evils; that the treatment of 
the criminal is unjust, cruel, unsatisfactory, as it still 
aims only at punishment and makes very little effort to 
reform. 

Women of large vision, and a sense of justice, have 
been trying to correct many crying evils, only to find 
their efforts ineffective and often futile, because ,— and 
here they see a great light,— because they have no power 
to compel attention from those in authority. They have 
found that they have not the force to push forward their 


LEGISLATION 


2IOI 


cherished plans until they are clothed with political 
power and the authority of the ballot — the power to 
command attention. 

Where women have the ballot, they find their efforts 
to obtain reforms much more effective than in those 
states where they are not recognized citizens. Where 
they have to depend on uncertain, “silent” influence, 
they need all of the cooperation and team-work they can 
possibly secure. Under even the most favorable circum¬ 
stances, there are bound to be many failures and dis¬ 
appointments. Women have been so separated and iso¬ 
lated, and have lived such secluded lives, that they may 
fail in their first attempts at united action. We must 
acknowledge that they will make mistakes and have fail¬ 
ures. Women do not claim infallibility. To obtain any 
measure of political wisdom requires time and patient 
study. They must learn to give loyalty and fidelity to 
leaders, and to unite with each other in perfect team¬ 
work, to sink minor differences, and bring all their 
enthusiasm to the obtaining of the greatest good. 

There has been no end of advice given, ridicule 
bestowed, an abundant and absurd curiosity, and, most 
exasperating of all, mis-statement and unmerited abuse 
have been heaped upon our efforts in the past. It seems 
an unwarranted assumption of superiority to give advice 
to the great multitude of women who, through organ¬ 
ized effort, are trying to do good work and hope to 
obtain definite results; but it may be of profit to review 
some suggestions that have been found of value in the 



2102 


LEGISLATION 


experience o'f other women, and to call attention to some 
of the methods which they have found useful. 

How to Organize 

In every endeavor, persons must be found who are 
fitted to be leaders, and who will act aggressively. They 
must be able, of wise judgment, pleasing, and popular. 
They must be enthusiastic for the cause; willing to 
work harmoniously with others, regardless of personal 
prejudices; ready to acknowledge the value of their 
colleagues; forgetful of self; absolutely non-partisan 
and non-sectarian, so far as their relation to this effort 
is concerned; able to grasp the essentials and sink the 
lesser good for the sake of the greater. Such leaders 
are not plentiful, but they can be found. There must be 
a definite object to be obtained, as well as a detailed plan 
of action, and care should be taken not to attempt to 
gain too much at one time. Concentration of effort is 
most essential in political activity, as in every other form 
of endeavor. Enlist the club women of the state, 
through its federation, in a united effort to obtain some 
one reform; ask the cooperation of the Woman’s Chris¬ 
tian Temperance Union, church organizations, members 
of the Farmers’ Alliance, Teachers’ Association, women 
of the Trades Unions and Consumers’ Leagues,— every 
group of women organized for the uplift of humanity. 

Have a Press and Publicity Committee of discretion 
and judgment. It is very important to secure a Finance 
Committee who can devise means of raising funds to 


LEGISLATION 


2103 


pay for necessary literature, postage, stationary supplies, 
and incidentals. The chairman of each of these com¬ 
mittees should be a person with especial fitness for the 
position and with intense interest in the line of work for 
which she is selected. 

Include in this organization women from every part 
of your county and state; women from city environ¬ 
ment and country life as well. You may be astonished 
at the amount of talent that will be developed by some 
of the most quiet, unassuming women. Cooperate with 
any civic organizations you may already have. 

If your organization is to do effective legislative work, 
the chairman of each committee and delegates from 
all societies interested in securing legislative reforms 
should meet often with the chairman and officers of 
the general committee, during legislative sessions at the 
state capital. Once a week, at least, is necessary in 
order to keep track of all bills they are interested in. 

The chairman of each committee should report the 
progress of the bills they are watching and should ask 
help when they feel it is needed. Those who can not 
come to the meetings should be kept informed by mail 
of the progress of affairs and urged to communicate 
by letter with their representatives in the Legislature. 
Often a circular letter, signed by men and women from 
a representative’s district, asking his assistance in behalf 
of a bill, and especially his vote, will be very effective. 
It keeps him in mind of the fact that his support of 
various issues and his vote on bills in which they are 



2104 


LEGISLATION 


interested, are known to his constituents. Many times 
a legislator seems to think his constituents are a long 
way off, or too busy to know about his legislative action. 

Personal effort in behalf of good bills is your right, 
and is not offensive, nor is it considered officious inter¬ 
ference on the part of the individual citizen. Neither is 
it transgressing any of the proprieties to do necessary 
lobbying. The only disgrace attached to the word is 
brought by those who use money or material advantage 
to buy a vote, without regard to the right or wrong of 
the issue. There should always be a dignified, tactful 
attempt to convince the one y^u hope to influence that 
there is merit in the bill you are working for, and that 
it is to benefit the greatest number. 

Printed copies of bills in which your committee is 
interested can be secured, with all amendments added. 
Many times a good measure can be made ineffective by 
its amendment on the part of some enemy of the bill, 
who finds this the only way to nullify the results hoped 
for. It may be the only course left its enemies, and in 
the hurry of heated debate, through oversight or neglect 
of its friends, it may be inserted. It takes “eternal 
vigilance ” to secure good results. If the women on 
your General Legislative Committee desire to introduce 
a bill, they should secure the services of a capable, 
honest lawyer to properly frame it for them. There is 
always a prescribed form of title to a bill that must be 
followed, and the wording of every section must be 
clear and definite. You must be sure that all you hope 


LEGISLATION 


2105 


to secure in the law sought is included in the bill as intro¬ 
duced. You will need legal knowledge and a trained 
legal mind to draft your form. As such services are 
valuable, you will see another reason for the need of a 
good Finance Committee. 

The value of funds in your treasury will be ap¬ 
parent to you as you proceed. You may find it im¬ 
peratively necessary to telegraph to some person in 
a distant district for prompt and immediate aid for a 
measure. The money to do so must be at hand, as 
such action may be its only salvation. 

Your committee chairman must keep an account of 
the vote of every member of the legislature on the bill 
or bills of which she has charge. She must keep track 
of every amendment offered to her bills — by whom 
offered and the ^ote of each one on all such amend¬ 
ments. 

Such data can be obtained from the house and senate 
journals. Let it be known also that you are keeping 
tab on all votes of measures in which your committees 
are interested. 

After most careful organization, the most faithful 
labors, the most heroic efforts, you may meet with 
some defeats. Do not be discouraged at a few fail¬ 
ures. You will have gained that most necessary asset 
in any work — valuable experience. With courage and 
unyielding tenacity you can continue the work another 
time, improving your methods with this experience, 
and you will be able to record a splendid percentage of 



DEC 22 1313 


2106 LEGISLATION 

success in your succeeding efforts. You can do much 
to obtain good civic government. Use the same methods 
and keep up a perfect organization of all good, intelli¬ 
gent, earnest women. Here you must be firm to stand 
for principles and do not be led away by political names 
or shibboleths. Let your aim be to secure personal 
merit, honesty, and efficiency. Refuse to aid those 
who uphold gang methods. The aim of “the gang” 
is to maintain power for themselves, and advance the 
political ambitions of leaders by any method, and to 
reward the other members of the gang with the lesser 
plunder and spoil of office. It has been responsible 
for terrible abuses and criminal methods in city gov¬ 
ernment, for petty thieving and wholesale graft. To 
be a good, useful citizen demands thought and study, 
the sacrifice of time and ease, patient investigation of 
theories advanced, and reforms advocated. One must 
learn to distinguish between the real and the unreal, 
the true and the false. This is no easy task and cannot 
be accomplished with superficial study. It is so easy 
to make the false appear plausible that one is well 
nigh discouraged. Women have many idle moments 
that might be well employed in earnest study, and there 
are quantities of books, pamphlets, leading articles on 
all the great questions of the day accessible to every 
woman. 











































































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